


Finding Hope

by O_M_Jee



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alpha Hope, Bad Ass Hosie, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hosie, Jealous Hope, Mild Sexual Content, Post S1 finale, Sire Hope, Smut, Some handon, Some jandon, jealous Josie, new characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-04-08 07:59:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 47,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19102981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/O_M_Jee/pseuds/O_M_Jee
Summary: Post Malivore Hope-jump world where Josie keeps having dreams of a strange girl, whom she soon suspects is a mysterious Hope Mikaelson. In order to save her own life and meet the girl of her dreams, Josie decides to take matters into her own hands in finding Hope. But when she finally does find Hope, it is not so much the Hope she expects and has been seeing in her dreams. The new Hope is something else.Time-jump – 6 months post finale.





	1. Girl of My Dreams

_“You had a crush on me?”_

_“Of course I did.. who wouldn’t?”_

Josie wakes up with a pain in her chest. It was another dream with the same girl again. That mysterious girl whom she has no idea who she is but keeps having dreams of her for the past 6 months. It is not haunting dreams at all and it somehow feels real, like the person really exists.

“ARGH!” Josie holds the pain in her chest and finds herself sweating furiously. That mud bullet injury six months ago seems to have a permanent affliction on her now. The pain will go away when she takes the blood which is the only cure but the pain will come back every few weeks. Josie tries to muffle her screams of pain again but it is just too hard to endure the pain.

\------  

Alaric jolts awake at the sound of his daughter’s voice.

“Dad, Josie’s in pain again.” Lizzie wakes her father up from his sleep in the middle of the night.

“Alright, how much blood do we have now?” Alaric asks wearily.

“There were supposed to be 3 tubes left in the common fridge. But I just checked and they’re gone!” Lizzie reports. “At this rate, I don’t know how long Josie can survive. We need to find the source of the blood already. Not just for Josie but for the other kids too. Last week, 3 of our vampires got werewolf bitten and probably took the last 3 tubes. We’ll run out of the cure very soon.”

“I know that, Lizzie. Haven’t I been searching all these months? We have tried the location spell with the blood and it doesn’t lead us anywhere! It’s the blood of a tribrid which I have nothing to start from! There are no reference sources of such a being existing at all. Hybrids whom I know of are all dead as well.” Alaric tells his daughter as he puts on a robe, heading to his secured mini lab fridge in his room.

He keys in a code to unlock and retrieves a tube of blood. “Darn! I have only 2 tubes left in my fridge now.”

“Maybe death is the only cure for me.”

Alaric and Lizzie turn around to find a pale-looking Josie standing in the room with a book in her arms.

“That’s the last option in a worst-case scenario. Remember we discussed this before. Your mother and I don’t want any of you turning vampire, you know that.” Alaric tells his brunette daughter.

“What is wrong with being a heretic?” Josie argues. “This pain keeps coming back. And the blood is just a temporary cure. I’m like an addict, always needing this blood. Blood that is running out for everyone.”

“Jo, you know if you turn vamp, I’d want to turn too.” Lizzie adds. “And we know Dad hates that. He’ll probably disown us.”

“Girls, I’m trying my best here.” Alaric stretches out his hand with the tube of blood to Josie who readily takes it and drinks it. Relief and colour finally return to Josie’s body and she announces some news to her father and sister.

“Anyway, I think I found something very useful.” Josie places the book on her father’s desk. “I think the tribrid we are looking for is Hope Mikaelson…”

“Mikaelson?” Alaric asks.

“What book is that?” Lizzie asks her sister.

“Sigh.. It’s a book of secrets. Penelope gave it to me months ago. She basically tricked almost everyone in this school into using a spellbound pen she gave them…” Josie informs. “Almost everyone’s secrets are in there because it records their diary entries. I never looked at it because it was intrusive but desperate times calls for desperate measures recently so I read it in case we can find some kind of clue on tribrid blood. Anyway, there are some Hope Mikaelson entries, which I gathered she’s THE tribrid who donated to our blood supplies.”

“This is starting to make sense. The Mikaelsons were the only family of an original hybrid, Klaus Mikaelson. What else does it say about Hope?” Alaric asks.

“She’s been in our school for the past decade. Her father Klaus Mikaelson and mother Hayley Marshall…”

“Yes, they were the last hybrids I was saying I knew and they’re dead. So, Hope’s….” Alaric notes.

“Our only Hope..” Lizzie adds.

\-----

“Somehow, Hope’s existence has been erased from everyone’s memories.” Alaric announces to Dorian and Emma. “From some of my secret entries found in that book that Josie had, it’s most likely because Hope jumped into Malivore that caused the memory erase. We need to find her. My research on Malivore isn’t much to go by so we need to get digging. Deeper!”

Lizzie soon arrives in the library to help out, bringing along her friends, MG and Kaleb.

“Where’s Josie?” Alaric asks Lizzie.

“I thought she was here already?” Lizzie asks.

Just then, Landon runs into the library. “Where’s Josie?” he asks anxiously.

“Look for yourself, she’s not here and I’m done being the information counter for the whereabouts of my sister!” Lizzie lets out to Landon. “Dude, you have been dating her. You should know her whereabouts better than me!”

“She left a note for me! She says she has to break up with me. That someday I will understand!” Landon informs.

“Seriously?” Lizzie shrugs and mutters to herself. “Like finally..”

Then Lizzie reaches into her pocket to check on her phone. She finds a text from Josie.

_There’s something I need to do to find Hope, sis and I need your help. It’s just based on my gut feeling and I don’t want everyone going on a possible wild goose chase with me. Keep this to yourself and think of something to tell dad. Then come meet me at the old mill now. – Josie_

“Josie’s just texted me. She wants to be alone… and especially from you, Landon. Just….Don’t worry, ok. I’ll make sure she’s fine.” Lizzie announces to everyone. She trusts her sister is not doing anything too dangerous.

\------

Josie takes out the necklace and clamps it in her palm, closing her eyes as she is trying hard to remember a spell from one of her dreams. Alone in the abandoned old mill, Josie patiently waits for her sister.

“This better be good, Josie.” Lizzie finally arrives at the old mill, grumbling. “It wasn’t easy thinking of a believable excuse to get out of that research mission, especially with Landon pressing me about your whereabouts!”

“Oh..” Josie notes.

“Oh? That’s all you have to say? After dumping him with a post-it note?”

“It wasn’t a post-it note…. It was a letter.” Josie found it so awkward to continue her relationship with Landon after she found out from the book of secrets that the Hope she needed to find to keep her alive had actually dated the guy she has been dating for the past 3 months. But to explain all this to Lizzie can be a chore. Now she just needs to find Hope.

“Still? A pretty cowardly move to dump someone.” Lizzie has to add. “Did he cheat? I doubt it. Did you cheat?”

“Lizzie, will you please leave it already? You’ve always wanted us to break up anyway!” Josie grunts in frustration. “We are just not meant to be. We only got together because we were both lonely and single and he’s far from a Penelope Park.”

“Yet he got dumped.” Lizzie has to probe some more. “Wait! Does this have anything to do with the girl in your dreams? Did you finally see her in person?”

“No…but I think she has something to do with Hope Mikaelson..” Josie suggests. “Lizzie, I think she’s actually Hope.”

“How are you sure? We have no idea how Hope looks like at all. Was her name ever mentioned in your dreams?”

“No.. that’s why I’m not sure. I’m just guessing because it just feels like it.”

“And what do you need my help for?”

Josie shows Lizzie a necklace with a beetle imprint on it. “I think this belongs to her. Or maybe a gift from her. MG passed this back to me, saying it was mine but I can’t remember how I got it and only wore it occasionally.”

“So, what can we do with this necklace?” Lizzie picks up the necklace from Josie, staring at it curiously.

“We cast an astral projection spell using this necklace. It has magic. I also need some channelling from you.” Josie advises.

“But I don’t how to do that spell.” Lizzie admits.

“I know how…in one of my dreams, she used this spell and casted it together with me. I can cast it and project myself to where she might be located.”

“Josie, could all these dreams be actual memories of Hope?” Lizzie observes.

“I think so.. I hope so. I really hope she’s Hope.” Josie then stretches out her hands to her sister. “So, will you help me, sis?”

Lizzie nods and reaches to hold both her sister’s hands with the necklace clutched between their hands. “Let’s do this!”  

Josie mutters the spell she recalls from her dream. After a while, Josie finds herself transported in another place. She is in the middle of the wetlands with a cabin just ahead. She looks for signs of Hope or an actual signage or clue of the place she is in now. There is a logo or crest sign hanging near the door.  It reads “The Crescent’s Bayou”. There’s also a smaller print in the logo that reads “New Orleans.”

“Josie?”

Josie turns to the direction of her name being called. It’s not Lizzie’s voice.

And there she sees her. That girl in her dreams! But she looks a little different from her dreams. Her auburn hair plaid tightly on one side and she’s draped in a badass leather jacket and cut-off blue jeans. She looks slightly slimmer but still kinda hot. She’s so pretty as Josie always remember in her dreams. Before Josie can speak to her, she gets transported back to the old mill where her sister is.

“What happened?” Josie asks her sister whom she suspects had released channelling the spell.

But Lizzie can’t reply as she faints into her sister’s arms.

\-------

“Lizzie… Lizzie.”

Lizzie wakes up, still drowsy.

“Hey..” Lizzie greets her sister wearily, finding herself in the comfort of her bed.

“Sorry, I must have channelled too much of your power earlier.” Josie apologizes.

“It’s ok. Did you find her?”

Josie nods excitedly. “I did! And I know where she is!”

“That’s great! Let’s tell dad and go find her!” Lizzie suggests but finds herself too weak to move.

“Lizzie, there’s no need..” Josie strokes her sister’s hair. “We still aren’t sure if she’s Hope. I just know she’s the girl who’s been in my dreams for the past 6 months. She has to mean something to me but what if we go all the way there and she’s not Hope?”

“So…what do you plan to do?”

“I’m doing this on my own..” Josie tells her sister. “If she’s really Hope, then that’s awesome. If she’s not Hope, then at least I made an effort to find this girl before I die. Lizzie, she might just be my soulmate! She can’t be always appearing in my dreams for nothing!”

Lizzie smiles at her twin. “That’s so romantic, Josie Saltzman.. I’m not into romance that much but fuck it, I want you to find that girl of your dreams!”

 ------

“Hope, you alright?”

Hope blinks and turns to the brown-haired guy who asks after her. “I’m fine, Gerald. I thought I saw someone I know.”

Gerald looks at where Hope was gazing at earlier. “I don’t see anything.”

“It’s fine. It’s most likely a projection. Something I didn’t expect she remembered how to cast.” Hope notes to her older male companion. Well, not that old, Gerald is just a year older.

“Is that another witchy kind of thing?” asks a dark-haired girl who just came out of the cabin.

“Yes, Amber. Something you hybrids don’t need to understand.” Hope draws a smile at the girl who is the same age as her.

“Did you find anything on the computer, cuz?” Gerald asks his cousin, Amber.

“You bet. But the network connection here sucks so maybe not so much. We need to move to a new place, Hope.” Amber advises.

“Not yet..” Hope tells the girl as she walks into the cabin.


	2. Tracking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait, my writing spirit finally came back.

Hope leans forward over Amber’s shoulder, staring at the werewolf-vampire hybrid’s laptop and asking. “So, there’s three of them?”

“Yeah.. three who are closest to where we are. Not in New Orleans yet.” Amber reports. “At least now I have a clearer detection from last week. They seem to be headed nearer and nearer to us now.”

Her cousin Gerald also adds. “I think they are sensing you, Hope. Just like Amber and I when we first found you in New Orleans months ago.”

“Is there any way to identify them, Amber?!” Hope asks the girl.

“Hope, I told you. If they are on the move, how am I supposed to hack to find their addresses and who they are?”

“We have been tracking them for days and I can’t wait too long! You are a hacker. Hack something else to find out who they are?” Hope demands.

“I’m trying, Hope. My tech is only able to trace them via their unique body heat carrying your blood and it’s already hi-tech enough to be able to detect them in such a large perimeter.” Amber adds.

“If your dad actually gave you a list of names of werewolves he turned with your blood, it would be most helpful to trace them.” Gerald reminds Hope.

“Thanks, Gerald. You are talking about my dead father who kills by the hundreds and hardly ever took down names?! I doubt he did the same when he created an army of hybrids, knowing they will naturally come to me.” Hope says sarcastically. “I just didn’t expect only two turned up on my door-step.”

“Hope, Amber and I happened to be on vacation here in New Orleans and managed to find you through close proximity senses. These three hybrids are probably sensing you right now. All we need to do is wait. When we can sense them nearer, we can go to them.” Gerald advises.

“Or maybe you can just turn all the werewolves in New Orleans now and build your army the quick start way.” Amber shrugs with her suggestion.

“No, Amber. I’m not doing that until it’s necessary.” Hope sighs. “Malivore is building his own supernatural army as we speak. If he’s gaining more power, I can feel it. Then again, I also can’t waste time. We’ll use your tracking device and head out to find those 3 hybrids tomorrow.”

Her two companions nod in agreement but not before Amber sees a new signal appearing on her screen.

“Hold on! I see a new movement and it’s not the three we were talking about earlier.” Amber highlights.

“How many?” Hope asks, checking the screen as well.

“One. It’s moving towards New Orleans right now. On a vehicle.”

“How long will it take if it’s heading towards here?” Gerald asks his cousin. “And why is this signal looking weaker than the other three?”

“A couple of hours. I’m not sure why the signal is weak but I guess it’s a network issue? Like it didn’t even appear until now and it’s suddenly the closest one to us now!”

“Change of plans.” Hope changes her plan. “We are sticking around for this one. Keep a lookout.”

\------

Josie rubs her palms nervously. “Almost there..” she tells herself quietly in the bus. She is not sure if she is nervous about meeting possible Hope or what her parents are thinking now. Lizzie had cooked up a story to make sure their father would not go on a frenzy finding Josie, at least for half a day. The girls came out with the story of how they got into a big fight that caused the brunette twin to pack and leave for Europe to mommy dearest. Of course, they had to lie to mom too, with Josie getting into her Oscar-winning performance of face-timing Caroline, crying and admitting that at this rate, she might just kill Lizzie and get the merge over and done with. It worked convincingly as Caroline had never seen Josie like this and agreed to have her flown over to Italy. Josie lied to her mother that she had already gotten a flight ticket and should be over to Rome by the next night.

Lizzie had texted Josie a while ago of their father falling for their lie after talking to their mother.  That would give Josie at least 15 hours to fulfil her mission of “Finding Hope or the soulmate of her dreams” without her parents noticing anything fishy.

For the girl of her dreams, Josie has definitely outdone herself in this web of lies game with her parents. She has mentally and bravely prepared herself to be punished and sent to the cells once her parents find out the truth. But it will not be in vain because she will finally see her in person. Lizzie will be punished too but as Lizzie had put it “Once they find out that you found the original blood donor, the punishment won’t be that harsh.”

“IF she is indeed the Hope we are looking for.” Josie had reminded her sister but Lizzie was confident, even more confident than Josie herself. Of course, that made Josie more determined to go ahead with the plan and here she is, just less than an hour to see that girl.

As Josie steps out of the bus and into the vibrant city of New Orleans, she can’t help but feel like an excited tourist. Walking around the bustling streets, Josie takes out her phone to pan around interesting sights, taking photos for memory. Then she catches sight of a rather familiar crest on a gate of a house. Why is the crest so familiar to her? Like she has seen that “M” on a uniform or pyjamas? Like something she saw in a dream?

\--------

“I’m just saying, the tracking system would be working better in the city!”

“But she wants us here for training.”

“What’s there to train when we wolf out and we can’t control our wolf sides.”

“That’s exactly what she’s training us on. Control! Not attacking innocents.”

“Dude! Don’t you see the training’s not working on me? I am still the same! Also, she wants the other hybrids here fast and I can do it better when I am in the city.”

“Amber, how about you move to the city while Hope and I stay here?”

“No, you idiot! I said we all move to the city and when we track and gather all those hybrids, then we move back here for training. I’m not leaving Hope alone with you!”

“There it is! Your insecurities are eating you up you are so afraid she’ll eventually want me more than you!”

“GUYS!” Hope interrupts the cousins.

Amber and Gerald turn to see their Alpha leaning against her room door frame, arms-crossed and looking pissed.

“We talked about this. We are all staying here until I say we leave.” Hope reminds them.

“But Hope, the new signal. It’s lost again. It’s intermittent and I can’t tell where it’s at now. This is a bad connection issue and the bayou is not the best place..” Amber explains.

“Who cares about the signal?! If the hybrid is sensing Hope, he/she will come here eventually.” Gerald answers instead. “And stop using the tracking system as the excuse to move back to the city when it’s actually the endless drunk party nights in the city that you want most!”

“Fuck you, Gerald!” Amber’s eyes turning amber now.

Just then, Hope hears a familiar facetime ringtone alert on her phone in her back pocket.

“Just stop, you two!” Hope tells the two hybrids across the room. “Get out there and let out that steam NOW! Both of you!”  

The two hybrids know well that running and fighting in wolf form is always the best way to settle their fights. They relent and leave the cabin.

Hope checks on her phone to accept her facetime caller now. She is glad that this call came in time when she did not want to deal with a childish fight between her hybrids.

“Hey Aunt Freya….” Hope greets her caller.

“How’s my niece holding up as Madam Alpha?” Freya greeting back.

“Just broke up another fight. This is why I never wanted this job when I was in school.”

“But you chose the job this time. Anyway, you know the house is always open to you and your hybrid army. If Amber wants to move back here, it’s fine with Keelin and I.”

“Wait! Did Amber call you?”

“Well, no. She texted.”

“She’s not ready. Both of them still need more training here.”

“Well, at least I offered.” Freya then pauses for a while. “So ah, remember when you first got out of Malivore and came looking for me? And though it was easy to regain all our memories of you because we had your stuff here and we kind of have an idea who you were, I’m just wondering if you are really sure no one in your school remembers you. You really had all your stuff destroyed there?”

“Yes. I made sure Dr Saltzman did so. Why?”

“Well, there was a girl who came by our house earlier today. She was standing outside looking in curiously. Keelin was home so she spoke to her. The girl was asking about our family crest. But Keelin you know, being paranoid, did not answer and asked the girl where she was from. She said she was from the Salvatore School in Mystic Falls. Since you were determined not to have anything to do with the school anymore, Keelin decided not to give out anything…”

“How did the girl look?” Hope asks her aunt impatiently.

“Brunette. Pretty with brown eyes. May be your junior? A very polite girl but Keelin was still wary.”

“Josie…” Hope guesses. “How long ago was this?”

“About an hour or so ago? I just got back and Keelin told me this.”

“Ok, look, I gotta go. Thanks! Love you!”  Hope blows a kiss to her aunt and hangs up.

\-----

Josie checks on her GPS as she treks further into the wood. She thinks she should be close. Also, a part of her is starting to be quite sure the girl in her dreams is indeed Hope Mikaelson. That crest on that house she saw earlier was so familiar because she believed in one of her dreams, she saw the girl wearing a pyjamas bearing that crest.

Since the lady at the house with the crest was not very willing to give any information, Josie did not want to push any further and left it at that. She decided to ask a passer-by if they knew about the family that lives in that house. It was easy. Everyone knew the Mikaelsons. Josie has one puzzle solved now. She decided not to try her luck again at the Mikaelsons’ residence to ask about Hope since they most likely have forgotten about her too. Which is why, she is now in the woods near the bayou where she guesses Hope should be residing in a cabin.

When Josie reaches a small clearing, she hears some animal activity nearby. She peeps from behind a tree and sees two wolves growling at each other. Josie knows they are werewolves, dangerous werewolves and she takes a cautious step back. But that step is unfortunately not too cautious as Josie finds herself slipping on a small rock and falling on her back. This catches the attention of the wolves and one of the wolves let out a loud growl and charges towards her. Josie, trembling from fear, quickly clasp the pendant around her neck to siphon its magic. Before she could cast her spell, a human form jumps on top of her, causing Josie to lay back down as she hears a familiar voice shouting “Control yourselves! Get back now!” The wolves trail their steps back slowly, listening to the girl straddled on top of Josie.

“NOW!” the girl commanded with a growl and the wolves quickly turn around, running away.    

When the girl turns to face Josie, she asks in concern. “Are you alright?”

Josie gasps, speechless at the sight of girl in her dreams physically seated on top of her, hovering over her. This is her.

“Josie!” Hope checking again on the brunette as she leans closer, gently touching Josie’s face with her warm palm.

“Hope?” Josie whimpers.


	3. Catching Up

“You remember me?” Hope gets up and pulls Josie up effortlessly.

“I ah..” Josie is momentarily startled by Hope in getting her up to her feet with such ease, even with Josie’s backpack on her back. The siphon witch dusts some dirt off herself as she admits. “A little.. actually, it’s mostly guess work. I keep having dreams about you and I found some of your diary entries..”

“Diary? But I told Dr Saltzman to destroy everything on me.”

“Dad? But why would you do that?”

“It’s a long story, Josie.”

“You mean about Malivore and that you possibly jump into that land and got yourself erased from our memories?” Josie guesses.

“So you know?”

“Yeah, from Dad’s journal entries in a spellbound book of secrets where my evil ex, Penelope had passed to me. It also carries mostly everyone else’s diary entries. From there we suspected that you had jump into Malivore. I’m sorry I dug into your entries as well. We needed to find you. I needed to find you.”

“So, you astral projected yourself to find me.” Hope remembers seeing Josie’s projection earlier. “But with what item of mine did you use for the spell?”

“With this.” Josie holds the pendant hanging on her neck.

“The birthday present I gave you?”

“So it was my birthday present?” Josie smiles at that thought. “But what does it do? All I know is there’s some magic in it.” 

“It makes quiet things heard.” Hope doesn’t mind telling Josie again. It is nice to finally see Josie this happy with her gift now, unlike the previous time when Josie was in shock from being buried alive.

“Thank you.” Josie appreciated that this necklace sure as hell made her do or say the things she never knew she has the courage to. Like, lie to her parents and go on this trip to find Hope.

“But what I don’t understand is why do I have these dreams of you. I don’t know if they were memories or just fantasies?” Josie wonders aloud.

“Hmm.. what KIND of fantasies?” Hope raises curious brow, her tone a little teasing. She walks over to a bench near the lake and pats it for Josie to sit next to her.

“Not that kind..” Josie blushes in embarrassment as she sits down. Already Hope is being like this and Josie wonders if they ever dated.  

“How about you tell me one of your dreams and I’ll tell you if it’s a memory?” Hope suggests.

“Oh ok.. well….”Josie decides to be brave and reveals. “There was one where you found out I had a crush on you…”

“Yup! That’s a memory! What else?” Hope probes.

But Josie is recovering from embarrassment that the crush was a fact. “And…that’s all? I mean, what happened after I confessed?” Josie has to ask. She does not want to ask be obvious and actually ask if they dated after.

“Oh, err, nothing happened. I was dating someone else then.”

This time, Josie stands up upon realization that of course, Hope was dating Landon then. Yes, that Landon whom she dated after Hope got erased from their memories. “Oh dear. Oh shit…”

Hope watches Josie pacing now. “Josie, are you alright?”

“Nothing.. I’m just thinking of another dream.” Josie thinks of one quickly. “I was doing a spell with you. An astral projection spell where you were finding someone?”

“Yeah, that happened.”

“Who were you finding?”

“Ermm… Landon.”

“Oh...” Looks like Josie can’t escape that topic. “Listen, Hope. Landon’s doing fine and ah…”

“I know about you and Landon.” Hope interrupts and surprises Josie with that revelation.

“What? How?”

“After I came out of Malivore, the first thing I did was to look for my Aunt Freya. She did a spell which is similar to astral projection except that no one could see me. I saw what was going on in the school. Everyone was moving on like I never existed which was what I expected. But you and Landon dating? That was...” Hope lets out a soft chuckle and shakes her head. “Really unexpected.”

“Oh god.. I’m sorry.. please know that I didn’t know about your history with Landon until I recently checked your diary entries.” Josie admits.

“Why would you be sorry? It’s no one’s fault. If anyone’s to blame. It’s me. I chose to jump.”

Josie shakes her head as she takes her seat again. Guilt not entirely gone but she decides to ask something else.

“Hope, did your Aunt Freya remember you?”

“Nope…but she had my stuff and she figured out quickly when she saw me. I did telepathy with her to regain all her memories of me.”

“So, you could still regain our memories of you. Why didn’t you just come back to us in school? We could have gotten back to how things were with you before.”

“Josie… it’s just… not that easy for me. I chose to leave everyone there to fight Malivore alone and I am still fighting that war. That is still my agenda and I don’t want you guys in danger. Not then and not now too.”    

“Hope, I’m sure we can help you with this war. I mean, I’m sure we are all good with you in school, right?”

“Of course, we are all good. Which is why I don’t want the people I care about to get into this stupid war that I created.”

“Tell me everything that went down when you jumped, Hope.”

“How about I tell you all that after I regain all your memories of me? It’s much easier that way.” Hope suggests.

Josie nods eagerly and Hope moves closer, cupping the brunette’s jawline with her gentle hands. Josie’s heart skips a beat at Hope’s soft touch just below her ears. She finds herself enjoying her warm hands more than she should but it is short-lived as she is suddenly brought into the past. Flashes of childhood moments with Hope to her teen years till the moment she left Lizzie and her to save Landon. The memories flooded her so fast that she only has time to gather her emotions after Hope has released her hands. She realizes she has shared so much memories with this girl, though they were not that close for a time during their early teens. Hope was that girl who went through so much with the loss of her parents and is still this selfless, bad-ass heroine. She’s the witch who knew so many more offensive spells and dark magic that Josie feels embarrassed she knew nothing of. She has protected Josie. She is that friend who would protect all her friends. And she has been missing for 6 long months without anyone caring if she was alive!!

“Hey..” Hope checks on the younger girl to see if she remembers anything but Josie just draws Hope into a tight hug.

“How can you just leave us like this?” Josie asks Hope tearfully.

Hope is closed to tears too as she returns the hug. She wanted to hug Josie this tight from the moment she saw her in the woods, if not for the dangerous situation the siphon witch was facing earlier. Hope realized just then that she did indeed miss her friend that much. “I miss you too, Jo.”

\------

“It was 3 months of fighting in darkness.” Hope relates her time in Malivore as she treks her way back towards the cabin with Josie.

“What kind of monster was Malivore?”

“He appeared in all forms. Monsters you see in video games like Monster Hunter and even in the form of people I know. I kill one and a new one comes on.”

“Gosh! That must be exhausting.”

“It was..”

“So how did you get out then?”

Hope stops in her tracks. She pauses for some time before she speaks again. “I died.”

Josie is staring at Hope in surprise. “What? Like for real? You died?!”

“I lost the 124th fight. The fucker came in the form of my mom.” Hope admits. “But it seems to be the only way to get out of Malivore. My death led to freedom. But freedom also freed Malivore into our world.”

“Hope, are you saying you are a vampire now as well?” Josie checks.

Hope nods and turns to continue walking.

“Wait! Do you still have your witch powers then?”

“I lost them when I first got out of there so I went to seek my aunt who has been helping me harness my witch powers back. It took me some months to gain back some but there are still some spells I am not able to use. Anyway, I couldn’t waste any more time waiting for all my witch powers to get back in full form. Malivore is out there somewhere building his own army and I am building mine too.”

“Building your own army?”

“My dad used my blood to sire an army of hybrids some years ago. I have been trying to track them. The fact that I was once erased from everyone’s memories is making it harder for me to gather them. Those two wolves you saw earlier. They are part of it. And you’ll meet them in a while.”

“And how did you find them?”

“They came to me. Somehow, they sensed me when they were on vacation in New Orleans and dropped in at my house. My Aunt Freya could feel they were hybrids sired to me and welcomed them into our house. They then agreed to join me in my fight against Malivore.”

Before Josie can ask more questions, the two has reached the cabin where a tall, dark blonde boy and a pretty dark-haired girl with a nose ring awaits at the small porch of the cabin.

“Apologize to her now before you come inside.” Hope orders the pair of hybrids as she passes them by and heads into the cabin.        

“Sorry.” The two werewolf-vampires apologize to Josie simultaneously for almost attacking her earlier and follow Hope into the cabin.

Josie is not too bothered with the half-ass apology so she just shrugs and heads into the house.

“So, is she the hybrid?” Gerald asks Hope as the gang gathers in the living room.

“No. She’s my friend. A witch. From the school I used to go. Be nice.” Hope announces. “Josie, meet Gerald and Amber. They are cousins by the way.”

“Hi..” Josie greets with a small hand wave, noting the slightly intimidating stares from Hope’s little hybrid army.

“How is she not a hybrid?” Amber asks as she points at the screen of her laptop lying on the coffee table. “The signal shows that there are four hybrids in this house.”

Hope turns to Josie. “Josie?”

“Oh, if I'm a hybrid, I would know but I'm obviously not.” Josie announces.

“But my tracking system detects beings with Hope’s unique tribrid blood.” Amber adds.

“Oh that..” Josie recalls. “I have been drinking Hope’s blood.”

Hope looks at Josie, wide-eyed.

“That’s part of the reason why I’m here.” Josie explains further to Hope. “After I got shot by the mud bullet, dad gave me your blood and it cured me. But weeks later the pain in my chest comes back and I had to drink your blood to get rid of the pain. The pain comes back like almost every few weeks. And aside from me drinking it, others affected by werewolf bites are also drinking those blood supplies from you. Anyway the blood supplies in the school have run out and we don’t know where we could find hybrid blood and the only clue we had was you...”

“And your dad sent you down here alone?” Hope asks.

“No, I came down without his knowledge. We were trailing on several guesses. My dad thinks you are most likely still in Malivore. But I suspected otherwise especially with the dreams I had of you. I can’t be sure if these clues of mine were leading me the right way and I don’t want my dad coming down with me on a possible false trail. So Lizzie and I cooked up some story to convince our parents I was heading to Europe to visit my mom when I’m actually on this solo mission to find you.” Then Josie remembers and takes out her phone from her jacket pocket to check. “Oh shit! My phone’s on silent I have missed so many of their calls! I need to tell them I found you. I need to tell them when you’re coming back with me too.” 

“Listen, Josie. I can draw my blood and donate to the school again. And Amber and Gerald can also donate their blood if they want.” Hope offers and then drops the bad news. “But… I’m not going back to the school with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have the habit to reply to comments but I'll try to do that now. So yeah, hit me with the comments. Good or bad.   
> Warning: The next chapter is gonna be like surprise!Angst. Y'all just gonna have to deal with it.


	4. The Passionate Alpha

Josie is saddened by Hope’s rejection to go back to Mystic Falls. “Why? Not even for a while? I mean, like I said, we can help you in this war. Did you forget your Super squad?”

“Super squad?” Amber exchanges a raised eyebrow with Gerald.

“Josie, it’s MY war. Besides, my hybrids are powerful enough.”

“Two hybrids?!” Josie emphasizes, sticking two fingers up.

“Is that an insult?” Amber glares at Josie.

“Easy, Am.” Hope warns the raven-haired hybrid and then turns to Josie. “We are still tracking more hybrids. If I had my full witch powers, there’s a way I can summon them but I couldn’t do that complicated spell yet and so I have to depend on Amber’s tech for now.”

“Hope…don’t you miss the school? Us, your friends?” Josie wonders aloud and bravely adds. “Landon?”

Hope looks down at her feet and does not answer as Josie patiently waits for an answer.

“Who’s Landon?” Gerald breaks the silent exchange between the two girls.

“Her boyfriend!” Both Josie and Hope answer at the same time.

“Wooh, this is interesting!” Amber is amused by this.

A ringtone this time saves Josie and Hope from the awkward moment. It was Josie’s phone after she finally switched her ringer back on. She checks and sees Lizzie’s name on her phone.

“I’ll take the call outside.” Josie announces as she walks outside to the small porch, shutting the door behind her.

“She knows we can still hear her, doesn’t she?” Amber snorts.

“Let’s not intrude. We’ll head into the kitchen to talk.” Hope bops her head and walks into the kitchen.

“So you both really share a boyfriend?” Amber teases Hope. “I thought my alpha only gets to be shared and she doesn’t share.”

“Shut up, Am..” Hope then catches Gerald not looking as amused as Amber.

“So who’s this Landon?” Gerald repeats his question.

“Ex-boyfriend. And he’s dating Josie now. Ok? Makes sense? Can we move on from this topic?” Hope clarifies in the briefest way. She has never spoken to her hybrids about her past like her boyfriends, friends or her school since all of her existence was erased anyway when she jumped into Malivore. She just doesn’t see the need.

“Of course, you can move on.” Gerald states as he grabs Hope by the hand and pulls her into his arms, then crushing her lips with his. Hope gets caught in the passion and welcomes the kiss.

She doesn’t break the kiss until she feels Amber’s sultry kisses on the back of her neck. Hope turns away from Gerald to face Amber who wastes no time in taking a share of a Hope kiss as well. Hope takes in the raven-haired girl’s kiss deeply, overwhelmed by the two cousins’ luscious attention on her again.

It then takes Hope a few seconds to remember that they had a guest outside, or maybe inside the house now. She peeps up from her kiss to catch a dumb-founded Josie staring at the all too steamy scene in the kitchen. Hope quickly breaks the kiss.

“I think.. I need some air.” Josie turns around and practically runs out of the cabin.

“Shit!” Hope pushes the cousins away and gives chase to Josie.

Josie does not get to go far because Hope has caught up easily.

“Josie.” Hope stands in front of Josie who looks away. She can’t believe she just saw Hope having not just one but two hybrid’s tongues back to back down her throat. It’s one thing to see Hope kiss a guy. But it’s another thing seeing Hope french-kiss a girl. It kind of threw Josie off as if she was mad she wasn’t the first girl Hope kissed.

“Is that why you don’t wanna come back with me?” Josie asks, surprised at herself for raising her voice at Hope.

“It’s not what you think. It’s complicated.”

“Oh I know poly. I’m fuckin pan. That is not complicated!” Josie argues.

“Then why are you this mad?”

“Because I’m shocked!”

“I’m not in a relationship with any of them, alright! It’s just….they are wolves. They tend to be territorial and fight over me all the time so.. I try to give them both equal attention…but it’s nothing serious. I don’t even want a relationship at this point!” Hope tries to explain.

“So, you intend to what, give this kind of attention to a whole frickin army when you gather more hybrids?” Josie knows she sounds like a mad, jealous girlfriend but she could not help herself. Maybe she should blame that fuckin necklace Hope gave her.

That seems to have hit a nerve because now Hope looks really upset. She takes a moment and then she shoots. “Do you know how I felt when I saw you kissing Landon?”

What a slap-back... Josie can only stare at Hope without any words. She did not know Hope existed months ago but she had dreams of her. Dreams she never spoke of to Landon because she did not think Hope truly existed. She did not want to make Landon in any way think that she secretly has the hots for an imaginary girl. She dated Landon for being the total opposite of a Penelope Park. But with the memories of Hope now retrieved, she felt she would never have taken that step with Landon when it had always been his girlfriend she preferred. That is why the guilt of dating Landon is there no matter what. Before Josie can break the news that Landon and her had broken up, Hope continues to let out.

“What do you think was the main reason I didn’t want to go back there, huh? I was obviously heart-broken. It hurt and it’s worse because I can’t be mad at you or him!” Hope lets a tear out now as she recalls her feelings back then. “I lost a fight, Josie. I died. I fuckin lost my witch powers. I came back to a world where none of my friends remember me and my boyfriend has move on to date…. the girl who had a crush on me?!”

“Hope..” Josie takes a step closer to Hope, not even sure if it is of any comfort at all.

“Josie.” Hope shakes her head at Josie. “I’m not the girl you used to crush on anymore. You need to know that.”

Josie can feel her heart sink to the lowest point as she watches Hope turn away, walking back to the cabin.

\------

Earlier when Josie took the call from her sister, she found out that Lizzie had eventually divulge the truth to their parents after they could not get hold of Josie on the phone and were getting worried. Josie did not blame her sister and spoke to her parents through a con-call, telling them everything and the good news that she found Hope. That she would try her best to convince the tribrid to come back to Mystic Falls with her. She told her parents to give her two days to get this settled and then they can punish her all they want when she gets back to Mystic Falls.

After that heated exchange with Hope, Josie starts to feel some regret having come down here so far. What was she thinking? Girl of her Dreams? Soulmate? She was not judging Hope. Post-Landon and actually bisexual Hope was single and hot and could date any number of whoever she wanted casually, even at the same time! No, Josie was not being judgey, Josie was just…. fuckin jealous. Maybe she should stop feeling this way about Hope. Their love lives have somehow intertwined when Landon got into the picture. And now with the two hybrids?! Josie lets out a frustrated grunt, hating the ache in her heart whenever she thinks of Hope.

After some time of calming her thoughts and her messed up feelings, she decides to go back to the cabin. She shall tell Hope she will respect her decision not go back to Mystic Falls. She probably will accept Hope’s offer to take her blood supplies back to the school. Fuck! Josie hates the fact that she still has to depend on Hope’s blood and is still somehow addicted to her blood.

As Josie steps into the cabin, she sees Hope and the hybrids, standing apart in the living room this time, obviously done with some serious discussion.

“Hey.. it’s ah getting late and I’m wondering…” Hope offers. “Perhaps you can stay the night… in my room of course.”

Josie sees the two hybrids not looking too happy and somehow that made her want to accept the offer readily. “Thanks, Hope. I appreciate that. And if you really do not want to come back with me. That’s fine. I’ll leave tomorrow.”

\-------

Josie can’t sleep that night. She stays on her side of the bed facing away from Hope lying next to her. Hope whom she cannot stop thinking about again. She hates how she had come down all the way here to eventually give up on Hope…hot, single and available Hope.

Maybe she can just stare at sleeping Hope while she can since she is leaving the next day and does not know when she will ever see her in person again. Josie turns around slowly to face Hope only to find “sleeping” Hope awake as well, staring back at her.

The two girls just stare at each other quietly for an unknown period of time. Josie is not counting the minutes anyway, just staring into those ocean blue eyes. They are not smiling at each other though. It is just two pairs of sad eyes taking in each other, filled with perhaps apologies and regret as well.

“Do you hate me?” Hope speaks first. Her soft tone making Josie feeling all soft for Hope again. The auburn-haired girl has her hair down with a few strands of hair covering her beautiful face.

“No.. If anything, you should hate me.” Josie replies as she reaches out, her fingers finding the auburn strands of hair and tenderly placing them behind the tribrid’s ear.

Hope catches Josie’s hand on her ear and keeps it there, warm against her cheek. “I did. At that point. But I can’t hate you for long, Jo. Not when it was never your wrong-doing.”

“I broke up with him, Hope.” Josie admits. “After I read your journals.. I just couldn’t face him.”

Hope looks surprised but she isn’t looking too ecstatic about the news as well. Sure, she could not accept the reality of Josie and Landon dating at first but she never intended for them to break up because of her. She turns away lying on her back, looking at the ceiling. “Oh Josie…”

“If it’s any comfort, I didn’t have sex with him..” Josie adds.

“Neither did I..” Hope reveals.

“What?” Josie is surprised at Hope and Landon’s sexless 2-month relationship but another curiosity hits her. “But ah.. how about the two cousins?”

Hope shakes her head. “Nah. Since they are sired to me it was easy to get the message across to them. No sex. I know sex and a relationship would only complicate things even more. I only sometimes get caught in the moment of passion, you know. I was at a low point right after getting out of Malivore. I was lonely and I just lost my witch powers and was angry all the time. Amber and Gerald then appeared at that point and they are just so free-spirited, fun, flirty… And well, I liked their attention.”   

“Hope.. I want you to know that I wasn’t like.. judging you or anything. I was just…” Josie pauses as stops herself from admitting her jealousy. Her necklace is on the bedside table so that explains it.

“I’m not into poly, Josie. If I want a relationship, it has to be monogamous.” Hope assures.

Feeling a lot better talking comfortably with Hope again, Josie decides to ask Hope again.

“Is there still no way I can convince you to come back with me?” Josie tries her luck. “I mean, the blood you’ll be giving us will run out again and you will have to deal with me again. At least let me help you with this fight. It’s only right we give you something in return.” 

“I don’t mind seeing you every few months to deal blood, Josie.” Hope lets out a light chuckle as she looks at those pleading brown eyes.

“I’m serious, Hope.” Josie reaches to hold Hope’s hand. “I may be the most regular drinker of your blood and that is not healthy at all. So I need to find a permanent cure. I can’t depend on you forever. And then there has been an increase in werewolf bites as well lately because of Raf. Last week we had 3 victims…”

“Wait! It’s not the full moon until a week. What do you mean?” Hope asks in all seriousness now.

“Raf somehow managed to wolf-out during the triad attack in our school months ago. We can’t seem to be able to find a way to get him back to human form. We managed to keep him in the cells for some months but he escaped like about a month ago and the bite cases started since.” Josie relates.

“You should have told me this earlier.” Hope gets out of bed and starts looking for a duffel bag to pack. “Looks like I have to go back to Mystic Falls with you.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments! I'm trying to update on a weekly basis, unless I'm in speed mode like now and you get the updates less than a week. I Have written the next chapter but it still needs lots of editing. Enjoy!


	5. Welcome back to Mystic Falls

“Okayyyy….” Josie is slightly confused. Hope had refused to go back to Mystic Falls for anyone, not for her or Landon but now she’s all for it because of Rafael? “I had no idea Raf was the one thing to convince you to come back to Mystic Falls. If only I knew. Or did I miss something?”

“He can only turn back to human form when I’m with him.” Hope explains. “I gave him a magical object he can use to turn wolf anytime but the only way for him to turn back to human is when I’m around him. Shit! He’s in that form for half a year and it’s my fault!” 

“Ohhh…” Josie understands now. Seeing Hope still looking for stuff to throw into her bag, she suggests. “Hope, we can pack and leave tomorrow? You need sleep.”

“I know.” Hope realizes she is indeed tired. “Look, before we leave to Mystic Falls, I need to drop by my aunt’s to pick up more stuff.”

“Sure.” Josie shrugs as she pulls the blanket away so Hope can get back into bed. The tribrid relents and slips into bed.

\-----

In the morning, Hope makes sure she wakes up earlier than Josie. She leaves her bedroom quietly without waking the sleeping witch. The tribrid then heads to the kitchen having smelled some nice breakfast. Good! Her hybrids are awake. She spots Amber and Gerald already at the table eating their pancakes and omelette.

“Morning..” She greets as she steps in the kitchen to grab some tomato blood base juice out of the fridge. “I need to tell you guys two things. First things first, we need to stop making out with each other.”

“Why? Cause’ your blair witch girlfriend can’t take it?” Amber guesses aloud.

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Hope simply says as she sips her juice.

“She kinda acts like one.” Gerald notes.

“Can you guys just leave it already? I can’t treat the both of you with such intimacy anymore. What happens when we have more of my hybrids who all wants the same attention from me?!” Hope snaps her fingers to have the two hybrids to look at her. “HEY! This has to stop, ok?”

The two hybrids just shrug, obeying their sire and continue eating their breakfast.

“What’s the other thing?” Amber asks her Alpha.

“I’m heading back to Mystic Falls today. Hopefully not too long until I settle a situation over there.”

“What?!” The two hybrids exclaim.

“Did you get some good sex last night to change your mind?” Amber asks as she takes a once-over at Hope.

“No, Amber!” Hope rolls her eyes and then explains to her pack. “Look, there’s a wolf on the run there who needs help to turn back to human form and ONLY I can help him. I won’t know how long it will take for us to find him so I’m gonna guess no more than a week before I get back here. Can the two of you stay here and keep track on the three hybrids who are closing in?”

“But Hope, they are probably only closing in because of you. If you go to Mystic Falls, don’t you think they will follow your trail?” Gerald highlights.

“Gerald is right.” Amber adds. “Can’t we join you instead?”

Hope gives it a thought and feels that she would need to discuss this with Josie, though she suspects Josie won’t like the idea. But apparently she thought wrong.

“I believe we have enough rooms to spare at Salvatore’s” Josie offers as she appears at the entrance of the kitchen. “I’m sure my dad will like the idea of having more hybrids around now.”

“See! We are more than welcomed. Though I know it’s more our blood that is welcomed.” Amber then admits delightfully. “But honestly I would rather be a blood donor than stay here for another day.”.

Hope just shakes her head at Amber and looks at Gerald who shrugs.

“I’ll go where my alpha goes.” He finally says.

“Alright. Then I guess we should be ready to leave by noon.” Hope announces with a clap. “We’ll stop by my aunt’s for a bit before we drive to Mystic Falls.”

\-----

Freya hugs her niece as soon as Hope and her companions step into the Mikaelson Residence.

“You must be Josie..” Freya smiles at the young brunette after releasing Hope from her hug.

“Hi.. Nice to meet you.” Josie stretches her hand out to shake the older witch’s hand but is given a friendly hug from Freya instead.

“Hmm.. your siphoning power is strong.” Freya notices from that touch. “Oh and I believe you met my wife, Keelin before?”

Freya motions Keelin over who apologizes to Josie. “Sorry about that day.”

“It’s fine. It’s good to be safe.” Josie smiles at the werewolf.

Keelin returns Josie’s smile before she moves over to give her fellow wolves Amber and Gerald some friendly hugs.

“I’m going to my room to collect some stuff.” Hope informs everyone. “It’ll take just a few minutes. Josie, you can wait here and chat with my aunt. Don’t worry, she’s nice.”

“Sure. I’ll be happy to.” Josie beams at Freya. After all, Freya Mikaelson is one of the world’s most powerful witches so which young witch wouldn’t want to chat with her.

After Hope heads up the stairs in giant leaps to her room, Freya props a friendly arm over Josie’s shoulders and leads her to the dining area to chat, leaving Keelin and the hybrids in the living room to have their own chat time.

“Josie, I can feel something….” Freya looks at the young witch in concern. “Like you have something dark inside.”

Josie is glad Hope’s aunt could sense it because she did think of asking the experienced witch about her current condition as well. She tells Freya about her weird mud bullet wound, and its bi-weekly chest pains which only Hope’s blood could treat.

“Did you… try to siphon the pain out?” Freya asks.

“It doesn’t work. Even with my sister’s siphon.”

Freya thinks for a bit. “If Hope’s blood can cure it and the pain still comes back, it means the mud blood in you is not completely diminished. But why? And how do we destroy it completely?”

“Hope told me that she was shot by the same bullet too but she did not feel anything or incur any injury from it.” Josie recalls from a conversation they just had in the car ride over.

“Yeah which is why she jumped into Malivore, confident that she could beat him.”

“Guess this mud monster is more powerful than we think.” Josie adds.

“I hate to admit that but Josie, know that I am not giving up in finding the answers to destroy him and your endless chest pains. Meanwhile can you do me a favour while you’re with Hope on this trip?” Freya asks of the young witch.

“Sure.” Josie nods.

“Make sure Hope does her daily meditation. She needs to do that to gain back her full witch powers. One day, they will all come back to her. For now, I know she is not strong enough to fight Malivore.”

“I’ll do my best to remind her.” Josie promises.

“Oh there’s one more thing. Ever since Hope triggered her vampire side, she tends to be…” Freya moves closer to Josie and whispers. “…kinda sexually excited? Amber and Gerald are sired to her and listens to her but you can, you know, stop her from getting distracted?”

Josie just stares at Freya wide-eyed. Not sure what her own thoughts are about this.

“What I mean is…Hope needs to hold her pack together and can’t play favorites. She made that mistake once when Amber caught her making out with Gerald once. And what did my niece do in order to stop the cousins’ rivalry? Equal make-out rights to both! When there’re more hybrids to come, and she is still playing favorites this way with the two cousins, it will only create war within her own pack. She also can’t rule her pack with an iron fist because that’s what her dad did and his hybrids all un-sired themselves, leaving him completely. She needs to be a fair and grounded alpha and lead with self-control as well. Her mother is not around to guide her so Keelin and I try our best. Josie, I just need your help with keeping her that way.”

“I-“ Josie is honestly surprised Freya trusts her this much on just their first meet.

“I can tell you care about Hope or you wouldn’t have come all the way here alone.” Freya smiles as she squeezes the younger witch’s shoulder.

\------

During the car ride to Mystic Falls, Hope and Gerald take turns driving, which leaves Josie and Amber in the back seat, bonding in the silent treatment way. Josie hates how Amber kind of reminds her of her ex, Penelope. Basically, they are both raven-haired bitches.

When the gang stops for a fuel refill, they spilt up in the convenience store to buy their own stuff. Josie takes the opportunity to talk to Hope.

“I sense some tension and distance between you and the cousins.” Josie asks Hope softly.

“Do you want me to keep on kissing them both?” Hope replies teasingly as she picks a packet of potato chips off the shelf.

“No! I don’t want them growling at me like I stole their alpha. At least that’s what I sense from my companion at the back seat.”

Hope chuckles. “They are not. I just told them to stop making out with me from now on and they had to obey, that’s all.”

“Ok..” Josie internally sighs in relief with a little delight that Hope has finally put a stop to her make-out sessions with her two hybrids.

When they are done shopping and head back to the car, Hope calls Amber out. “Am, take the front seat with Gerald. Take over the wheel from him in an hour’s time.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Amber shrugs and moves to the front.

Hope winks at Josie as she takes the back seat with her.

“Where was the location Raf was last spotted, Josie?” Hope asks as she looks at the map of Mystic Falls.

“I heard it was near the lake.”

“The lake near our school?”

Josie nods.

“Ok, we’ll head there now.” Hope decides.

“Don’t you think we should stop by the school? Settle down, shower, rest a bit before. Gather our friends to help?” Josie suggests.

“Not a good idea. We can only track Raf as werewolves. No one will be safe around us.” Hope states.

“I think I have to agree with the bruja’s idea to rest first, Hope.” Amber adds.

Gerald agrees as well. “Yeah, I’m the one driving the most. The least I could get is a cool shower and a bed for a bit.”  

Hope looks at a shrugging Josie and sighs. “Fine.”

After some time, Hope falls asleep on Josie’s shoulder. A familiar position the two girls find themselves in since their car trip last spring. Josie leans her head over as she smiles lightly against Hope’s hair. She catches the sight of 2 pairs of yellow eyes on the rear-view mirror looking back at her but she is too tired to feel anything except lightness and comfort in Hope’s scent and warmth. She soon falls asleep as well.

\-----

“We’re here.”

Josie opens her sleepy eyes to that announcement from Hope, except Hope is at the wheel and not by her side. Josie then finds her head lying against a firm chest of muscles. She jolts up, realizing it is Gerald’s chest playing pillow to her. She must have slept like a baby she had not realized Hope had switched seats with Gerald. The male hybrid just crooks a handsome sleepy smile saying “You’re welcome.”

Josie sees Amber yawning and just waking up as well at the front seat while Hope hops out of the car. Josie hops out of the car too, taking in her place of home and school and her dad and sister standing at the entrance like the friendly welcome party they always been. Josie hugs them quickly.

“Hope, come over.” Josie then gestures at the tribrid still standing at the driver’s car door. Hope takes a deep breath, rubbing her hands at her sides.

“Hi Hope.” Alaric opens his arms out but Hope stretches her hand for a handshake instead.

“Hi Dr Saltzman. You really don’t need to pretend you still remember me.” Hope greets as she shakes his hands.

“Hi Hope. I’m Lizzie.” Lizzie greets with her most friendly smile.

That smile that Hope remembers warmly from this frenemy-turned-pal and Hope is happy to give the blond a nice hug. Lizzie accepts the hug, smiling and winking at her sister who returns with a smile. But once Gerald and Amber get off the car, Lizzie is immediately taken by Gerald, checking out his tall build, dreamy hazel eyes and dark blonde hair.

“This is Gerald and Amber.” Josie introduces the hybrids whom she told her family about before coming back.

“Hi, I’m Lizzie. Josie’s twin. Yeah, fraternal!” Lizzie shakes Gerald’s hand and then notes a small wet patch on the front of his shirt. “Oh, you have a stain on your shirt. We have spare clothes if you need.”

“Oh that’s thanks to your sister.” Gerald tucks the wet patch. “She drools quite a lot when she’s sleeping.”

Everyone from Josie to Lizzie to Alaric reacts in surprise while Hope and Amber just silently snigger at Gerald being his rare witty self. But Hope loses her smile the moment she spots him. Landon. Who is just a few feet away, having witnessed Gerald making a remark about Josie staining his shirt with her drool? But Landon is not looking at Hope. He’s looking at Josie who then catches the sight of her ex-boyfriend.

“Landon..” Josie mutters as she watches the ex-boyfriend approach her.

Landon takes out a small envelope and waves it at Josie. He then points at Gerald and asks “Is he the reason for THIS?”

“What? NO!” Josie shakes her head.

“Then what?” Landon asks. “What is it that we can’t even talk about before you drop me this break-up note and disappear for 2 days?”

Josie turns to look at Hope who looks back at her, not sure what to do as well.

“Do you wanna talk to him?” Josie asks Hope.

“Why do I wanna talk to her?” Landon asks Josie, gesturing at the pretty auburn-haired girl whom he had never met before.

“How the fuck did the two of you actually date this loser?” Gerald has to ask.

Landon turns to Gerald and Alaric immediately sense an impending cock-fight.

“Alright, kids! Let’s get our guests inside first, shall we?” The headmaster puts an arm around Landon to pull him away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all enjoy this chapter. Up next, some angst Jandon and cute Hosie moments.


	6. Bad Girlfriends

Landon waits patiently in his room for that knock on the door. Josie promised to speak to him after she had freshened up and had her family meeting. Some hours later the knock came.

“Landon?” Josie asks through the door.

Landon moves immediately to open the door and sees Josie in casual jeans and a white t-shirt. He misses her and pulls her in, kissing her without thought. Josie gently breaks the kiss.

“Landon, we can’t..” She tells him.

“I’m sorry. I just miss you.” He apologizes. “Please at least talk to me. Why? Josie, what happened?”

Josie takes a seat on the edge of his bed. “You may not understand what I’m gonna tell you but after this, when you see Hope, she’ll make you understand, ok?”

“For the love of god, please make me understand now.”

“Landon, I had to break up with you because of your relationship with Hope. She has been in our lives all this while! Because she jumped into Malivore, we lost all memories of her. She’s been in this school for about ten years. She saved your life more than once! And you both were in love! You dated each other for a couple of months!” Josie reveals in the shortest way she can think of.

Landon can only stare at Josie open-mouthed. “How…how?”

“Hope helped regain all my memories of her and perhaps you will understand better when she regains your memories. And, I’m sorry I broke up with you this way. Because of what you had with Hope, I can’t face you the same anymore.”

Landon is still confused, his hands covering his temples.

“I think I’ll just leave you to gather your thoughts.” Josie then stands up to leave the room but Landon catches her wrist and asks her. “But I don’t understand. Hope and I aren’t together now. You did no wrong. I did nothing wrong. So why are we breaking up? No one cheated!”

“But I… I just feel like I had stolen someone else’s boyfriend.”

“No, it’s like a couple who broke up and then they moved on to date others.”

“Landon! She sacrificed herself to save everyone! She didn’t intentionally break up with you.”

“Well, if she loved me she wouldn’t have left me in the first place.”

“How can you say that?” Josie can’t believe she is actually trying to make things right for Hope and impossibly dumb Landon when she is still pining for Hope. Granted, he lost his memories of Hope.

“Maybe I should rephrase it. If she still loves me, why isn’t she here regaining my fuckin memories yet?” Landon adds.

“I don’t know..” Josie is unsure as she recalls Hope’s hurt feelings about Landon moving on but also Hope’s intention not to be in a relationship now. Also, the fact that Hope has so far not approached Landon since arriving here. And he’s right. Wouldn’t she be regaining his memories by now if she still loves him?

“And you? You just lost any feelings for me?” Landon shoots another question at Josie.

“Landon, It’s just… I feel differently about you when I got my memories back.”

“But you left me before you even got your memories back.” Landon catches a plot hole.

 Maybe he’s not that dumb after all. Josie closes her eyes for at least 15 seconds before deciding to let it all out and be done with it. She can feel the talisman on her necklace.

“Because it’s Hope, ok! Because of all the girls you have dated before, it had to be Hope! The girl I had recurring dreams about, even when we were dating. The girl I had a crush on since 8th grade, ok?! And I can’t date you anymore because it’s just fuckin weird!”

Landon does not look mad, just disappointed. He shakes his head as he moves to open the door for Josie to finally leave.

“Should have just told me that from the very beginning.” He remarks as he lets Josie leave.

\-----

Before going to bed, Josie decides to check on Hope. As she walks down the hallway heading to Hope’s room, she spots Hope and her two hybrids heading out of the school. Josie chases after them.

“Are you guys heading out to find Raf now?” Josie asks after.

“Yeah!” Hope nods as she leads her pack to their car.

“Can I come?” Josie asks.

“And have us attack you again? I gotta give it to you. You’re brave, bruja!” Amber laughs.

“Josie, it’s not a good idea…” Hope reminds Josie.

“But I can stay in the car and wait! Make sure no one else are in the area as well?” Josie suggests.

“I don’t mind. That helps!” Gerald shrugs at Hope.

“Fine! Make sure you stay in the car and don’t get out.” Hope gets into the car to take the wheel while Josie hops into the passenger seat next to her.

About 10 minutes later, they reach a parking area near the lake in the woods. Hope kills the engine of the car and takes out a backpack.

“Josie, stay here. Keep a lookout. If you see anyone nearby, and you can’t stop them from entering the area, warn us with the car horn 4 times, ok?”

Josie nods and then watches the three of them leave and head into the thick of the woods. It is already dark and it is unlikely anyone else will go to the woods or the lake. She waits patiently as the time goes by. Aside from spotting a deer running past, there has been no human activity so far. Josie does not need to use the horn yet. It’s been almost an hour and she finally see Hope and gang coming back but without Raf.

“So, he’s not there?” Josie asks as Hope gets into the car.

Hope shakes her head. “I think he ran quite far. Much further away from here. I can’t smell his scent at all. We’ll try again tomorrow in the day.”

\------

For the next three days, Hope and the pack would go out and track Raf for several hours everyday and again come back without Raf.

“Hope, I need to talk to you.” Josie appears at Hope’s room later one night.

“Hey Jo, sorry we got back so late today. What do you need?” Hope asks as she is preparing for bed.

“Hope, I told Landon. About your past with him” Josie informs. She somehow can sense Hope is avoiding everyone in school and she needs Hope to know she can’t avoid her friends forever.

“Why did you do that?” Hope asks, obviously not pleased with the news.

“Because he needs to know. Everyone here needs to know how you existed in their lives!”

“Well they don’t have to know when I don’t intend to stay here permanently!”

 “Hope! I don’t understand. Why don’t you want him to remember?”

Hope sits down as she admits. “Because…I don’t want him in my fight. I don’t want him near Malivore.”

“You don’t want all of us except your hybrid army in the fight and I get that! But we are all supernaturals. And Landon can’t die!”

“Landon isn’t just an undying phoenix! He is Malivore’s son. The host body for Malivore! If I let Landon back in my life while I fight this war with Malivore, we’ll basically lose him AS my biggest enemy!” Hope reveals.

Then Hope realizes and adds. “Shit! Josie, you need to keep this a secret. I don’t want anyone here coming after Landon when they find out he’s our enemy’s son. He obviously didn’t ask for this.”

Josie nods as she sits down next to Hope on her bed and place a comforting squeeze on the shorter girl’s shoulder.

“So….why did you regain my memories?” Josie brings up.

“I guess at that time when I saw you, I just miss an old friend enough to do that.” Hope confesses.

“Well, being the only one in this school who remembers you feels like such a huge burden now.” Josie sighs.

“It’s a privilege, Josie Saltzman.” Hope smiles at the brunette.

“My dad and Lizzie are pressing me everyday why you still haven’t tele them to gain back their memories of you and making me tell them whatever stuff I remember about you to them. Believe me, that’s not a privilege, Hope Mikaelson.” Josie remarks with a fake roll of her eyes.

Hope chuckles and then reaches for Josie’s hand and pull her along to sit more comfortably against the head rest of Hope’s bed.

Then Hope brings up an unexpected subject. “So…a break-up note? That’s savage, Josie.”

“Oh my god, even Lizzie said the same thing and she doesn’t even like him. I just don’t know how to do it!” Then Josie throws the question to Hope. “How did you do it then?”

Hope remembers and admits. “I…ah.. Right, I guess I’m definitely more savage then. I broke his neck and jumped into another dimension.” The tribrid then let out a laugh. “Gosh.. Poor Landon.”

Josie laughs along. “We make such bad girlfriends..”

“More like I’m worse!” Hope chuckles as she shakes her head.

“No. You’re more like a badass girlfriend since you saved him a number of times.” Josie observes. “I just wrote songs with him.”

“You did? That’s kinda sweet and romantic…” Hope mutters. A little bit of envy hits her. “I think the only romantic thing I did was to tell him I love him before I killed him.”

Josie tenses at that revelation. Her heart breaks a little that Hope may still feel strongly for Landon.

“Anyway, He hates me now. You know what, I should go..” Josie shifts a little, getting up from the bed but Hope pulls Josie’s hand.

“I’m sorry.. I.. didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” Hope apologizes, somehow hating herself now for bringing that bit up. Actually she was trying to be sarcastic about her own romantic ways.

“No, you did nothing wrong, Hope. But it’s late and I should let you rest. And I think you need to do your meditation too as your aunt advised.” Josie remembers Freya’s advice.

“I’ll do that after you stay for a bit more.” Hope still holding Josie’s hand. “C’mon what else did my aunt tell you?”

“You sure you want me to tell? I’m worried you might regret it.” Josie hints with a smile.

But Hope gets more curious and drags Josie back closer to her on the bed. “Tell me, Jo!!”

Josie lets out a chuckle as she reveals. “She said you tend to be… kinda sexually excited ever since you triggered your vamp side. I believe the right word for that is HORNY.”

Josie then burst into laughter as Hope’s face turn red with embarrassment and the tribrid starts tickling the brunette playfully for laughing at her.

The tickles keep Josie laughing but she tries to stop Hope by catching the stronger girl’s hands. Hope manages to hold Josie’s hands above her head, stopping the tickle play. Josie stops laughing as she finds Hope straddling her again like their last reunion meet, except with Hope staring deep into her eyes and her hands held up in surrender style. Josie can hear her own heartbeat skipping in fast mode like she’s going to get a heart attack any time. She stares into those ocean blue eyes and then at those tender lips. Hope leans in slightly, her lips pursing for wetness but this causes Josie’s heart to skip a beat again. Then Josie remembers Freya’s warning words and she quickly moves away from Hope’s grasp, from Hope’s dreamy eyes, from Hope’s kissable lips.

“Sorry I really gotta go before Lizzie comes looking for me.” Josie jumps off the bed and apologizes before running out of the room, leaving a slightly confused Hope in the room.

No, she shall not be seduced by Horny Hope and get her heart broken. She needs to keep reminding herself that because she knows one day she’ll falter and give all of herself and her fragile heart to Hope, horny Hope or not. And unlike Amber and Gerald who are easily sire-commanded not to pine for Hope, she can’t. Fuck…  

\------

Hope wakes up the next morning smiling. She has not had this feeling of fluttering, light-heartedness in a long time. Not since the early dating days with Landon. Her thoughts go to Josie and she wonders how the siphon has been able to make her feel this way. Last night, Hope enjoyed the Josie’s company a little more than she expected. She wasn’t sure if her vamp-sensitive hormones got to her again and gave her the temptation to want to kiss the brown-eyed girl then. But it is the next morning now and she is still thinking about Josie. Cute, sweet Josie. So, cute Josie had something like a gay panic moment and left her room which Hope knows it was not gay panic but a Hope panic yet Hope was kind of glad Josie pulled away. If she did not, Hope cannot imagine the nice things she would have done with her. Oh god! Hope shuts her eyes, blushing at the thought of it. With Amber and Gerald, it was purely casual lust thoughts but with Josie, there was definitely something more. Hope knows she has always had a soft spot for the younger witch. Josie is probably the most selfless, caring and trusting person of her age. Which was why it hurt Hope the most when Landon started dating Josie. The girl she can’t hate. Even when she did feel some kind of hate at the point of discovering their relationship, Hope knew it was out of pure jealousy. Now, she wonders who that jealousy was actually directed to. Hope shakes her head to keep the confusing thoughts away.

Just then Hope looks up to see a floating magical letter. It is the familiar headmaster’s office summon note. She takes the note to read which obviously asks for her presence at the headmaster’s office. Hope decides to abide since she also needed to see Alaric and asks some questions. After all, she and Alaric made quite the monster hunter team in the past. Hope also considers if she should retrieve Alaric’s memories. She did choose him as the last trusted person to speak to before she jumped into non-existence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally changed my username to the same one I use for twitter(@O_M_Jee). Follow me if you like.   
> I decided kind of last minute to write Landon as the guy who isn't that dumb and able to guess there's more to Josie's reason for breaking up with him. Also, I had fun writing the next chapter and I hope you'll all have fun reading it when I post it, possibly in the weekend.


	7. Finding Raf

“Morning Hope,” Alaric motions to the seat in front of his table when Hope walked into his office. “I know you’ve been busy with a good cause mission of finding Raf but it’s been days and I thought we should, you know, catch up on the progress.”

“We’re trying, Dr Saltzman.” Hope takes her seat. “Since the locator or my astral projector spell doesn’t work on a werewolf form, I can only use my sense of smell to find Raf and that’s tough.”

“And yet you still refused our help.” Alaric reminds Hope.

“What can you guys do? I have tried all kinds of spells. There’s no need for your weapons too since Raf will naturally turn back into human when I’m near him.”

“Is there any chance that…” Alaric tone turns solemn. “That you know, he’s….”

“Dead?” Hope helps Alaric. “Even if he’s dead I can still smell him and I will still bring him back.”

“Okay..” Alaric nods.

“Dr. Saltzman?” Hope decides to ask. “I do have some questions.”

“Shoot!”

“Remember the time when we first found Raf in the church? We tracked him through his family history and his car accident and…”

Hope can see Alaric with his furrowed brow and thinking really hard.

“Oh shit! I’m sorry. You don’t remember.” Hope catches that Alaric obviously cannot remember anything he did with her, not to mention the intensive tracking work he did with Hope.

“Maybe I should…”  Hope considers.

“Wait. Are you finally gonna regain my memories?” Alaric asks with hope in his eyes.

“Well, yeah..” Hope nods and stands up to face Alaric.

“Lizzie’s gonna be so mad I got this before she did.” Alaric quickly moves over to stand in front of Hope and is grinning like kid waiting to get a reward.

“I can’t believe you’re competing with Lizzie over this, Ric!” Hope shakes her head as she places her hands over Alaric’s temples.

The memory flood starts and ends in an overwhelming four minutes. Like Josie, Alaric hugs Hope immediately after.

“YOU’RE ALIVE!!” he exclaims holding his favorite student’s precious face and then hugging her again.

“Now do you remember what I need for tracking Raf?” Hope smiles at the overjoyed grown adult.

“YES!” he easily guesses.

\-----

As Hope and Alaric, along with her two hybrids march toward the exit in the school, Josie and Lizzie spots them and wonder where they are going. The twins quickly approach them.

“Where’s everyone going?” Josie asks.

“We are heading to where Raf’s original wolf pack lives. That’s where we think he may have gone.” Alaric announces. “I need you girls to stay here and help Dorian out if he needs it, just for a few hours.”

“Why are you going?” Lizzie asks her father. “You’re not a wolf!”

“I got my tranquilizer crossbow, don’t worry.” Alaric assures.

“Hope, let me I go in place of my dad. You know he’s human. It’s too dangerous for him.” Josie suggests.

“I… I did tell him not to come. I can’t compel him since he’s on vervain. He’s insistent and you know when your dad is being stubborn.” Hope tells Josie.

“Besides, he offered himself as bait for Raf the wolf. It was an offer we couldn’t resist.” Amber adds.

“DAD!” Josie and Lizzie yell at their father.

“Girls, all these years I still manage to survive right? And most of those times where I made it without a scratch was when I’m working with Hope. So, don’t worry!” Alaric adds.

“Wait!” Josie grabs her father’s arms and glances at Hope. “Hope regained your memories?”

Alaric nods proudly. Josie jumps in joy along with her father. She is no longer the only one who remembers Hope!!

“This isn’t fair!” Lizzie pouts with her arms crossed.

“Fine! All of you can go.” Hope relents. “You girls can make sure your dad’s safe and I could use some of the boundary spell from the two of you. And Lizzie, c’mon, I’ll get your memories back in the car.”

“YES!” Lizzie celebrates that she is at least third in line.

“Great, that means you guys need my SUV. I’ll drive.” Alaric leads the team.

As Hope turns to follow Alaric, she stops in her track as she sees Landon, the boy she has been avoiding, standing not too far from her, his dark eyes staring right at her. Great, he probably saw how Hope was happily offering to regain everyone’s memories but his.

Everyone notices the awkward tension between Landon and Hope.

“Erm, we have time. We could leave after lunch?” Alaric suggests, noting that the tribrid might want to recover the memories of the boy she used to date.

Josie stays quiet, guessing the dilemma Hope is facing now.

Lizzie shakes her head lightly, hating the possibility she might be fourth in line now.

“No.” Hope decides. “We’ve made Raf wait long enough. We should go now.”

Hope walks past Landon towards the door but Landon speaks out to her.

“I just wanna say.. I could actually help as well since I can’t die.” He tells Hope. “But I know you don’t seem to want to be anywhere near me or to regain my memories so…I guess the least I could do is thank you for what you have been doing so far to help my brother.”

“You shouldn’t thank me.” Hope tells Landon without turning back. “He’s in this mess because of me.”

\-----

The car ride is a silent ride for some time. Alaric is on the wheel with Hope in the front seat while the siphon twins takes the middle row and the hybrid cousins taking the back row. Hope does not know how she feels about Landon. She doesn’t know if she’s avoiding him because she still loves him or because she doesn’t love him anymore. Whichever it is, it still scares her to get his memories of her back. And then there’s Josie stirring up some feelings in her as well. She knows she is getting quite attached to the girl and knows that Josie feels something for her too.

A tap on Hope’s shoulder interrupts her thoughts. It is Lizzie at the back. Hope turns around to face the blonde.

“Ermm, I know it’s weird to ask you to tele me while you are seated in front and probably thinking why that thrift-store hobbit even thought of joining us on this mission when all the offensive powers he has is not dying…but can I at least get my memories back as soon as we get out of this car?” Lizzie asks.

“Lizzie, look at me.” Hope prompts.

“I am looking at you.” Lizzie stares at Hope as she leans closer against the front seat.

 Hope cups Lizzie’s chin with one hand firmly and commands. “Close your eyes.”

Josie blinks at the scene in front of her. At her sister whose face is just inches away from Hope with Hope’s hand cupping her sister’s face, like a kiss is about to happen! She would be mad if Hope regains her sister’s memories through a kiss while she got the traditional face touch way.

Lizzie looks wide-eyed at Hope one moment but quickly shuts her eyes, guessing the tribrid is likely going to regain her memories just with her chin cupped. And Lizzie is right. The memories come back in fast flashes. After it is all done, Lizzie catches her breath.

“Oh my god, I hated you!” Lizzie remembers out loud about Hope. “And…and all because of my sister…” Lizzie turns to Josie.

Josie sighs. “Lizzie, you got over it and forgave me.”

“So?” Lizzie adds as another realization sets in. “You were so worried I’ll take Hope from you that you put a wedge on Hope and me for 3 fuckin years! You weren’t even that worried when you dated Penelope!”

“Girls! Language! And too much information..” Alaric warns the kids in his car.

“I-“ Josie can feel the red in her face rising, so embarrassed to look at Hope or anyone. And Hope tries not to look at Josie to make the girl feel any worse.

“20 bucks, dude. Told you they dated.” Amber stretches out her hand to her cousin who shakes his head and digs into his pocket to find the cash on his losing bet.

“What? No, Josie only had a crush on Hope, they didn’t date.” Lizzie exposes.

“20 bucks, cuz!” Gerald pulls his empty palm out to Amber now.

“Damn it..” Amber mutters as she places a 20-dollar note in Gerald’s palm.

“Stop making bets on my love life already, you two!” Hope scolds her hybrids. She then glances through the rear-view mirror to see Josie flipping her hoodie over her head now, facing the window obviously still red in embarrassment. Hope, on the other hand, is trying to hide that flattering, tender feeling inside.

Two hours later, Hope tells Alaric to drive through a nearby forest.

“I think I can sense something.” She announces.

Alaric reaches a dead end in the middle of the woods and stops the car.

“So, what’s the plan? Am I still bait?” he asks Hope as the gang get out of the car and gather together.

“Lizzie and Josie will cast a protection boundary spell around Dr. Saltzman in that clearing. Your human scent will lure wolves but we can’t attack you with the protection spell.” Hope lays out her plan. “The hybrids and I will get into wolf form in search for Raf around the area and hopefully find him being lured here.”

Everyone agrees with Hope’s plan.

“Great! Siphon time. All of us hold hands now.” Hope instructs and prompts again. “Amber, hold Josie’s hand. She’s nearest to you and she needs to siphon your magic.”

The two girls reluctantly hold hands as Hope reaches out to hold both Josie and Lizzie’s hands. They give the twins a few minutes of siphon time and then the team splits up.

“Josie, this backpack contains clothes for Raf. If we do get him here, and I manage to get him back to human form, you know what to do.” Hope hands the backpack to the brunette who nods at her.

“Be careful.” Hope advises, displaying a gentle smile as she squeezes Josie’s arm before she leaves with her two hybrids into the back of the forest.

Lizzie eyes suspiciously at her sister. “Did you two bond that well in New Orleans?”

“Let’s just do the spell already, Lizzie. We don’t want dad to get eaten up.” Josie hurries her sister.

\-----

Almost an hour into casting the protection spell, Alaric and his daughters can hear the wolves’ howling getting louder which means the wolves are getting close to them.

“How long can this spell last, girls?” Alaric double-checks, taking out his crossbow.

“Not long…” Josie answers. “I’m siphoning the magic from my talisman as well but I can’t be sure how much of it can keep this protection spell up.”

“They are taking longer than we thought.” Lizzie notes. “We need them back here in human form and let us siphon more power again.”

“It’s okay, girls. I’m a good shot. I never miss. Any of the wolves attack me, I’m good.” Alaric assures.

“As good as dead meat, dad!!” Lizzie adds. “Especially if you have three wolves attacking you at the same time, NO, make that four if they found Raf!”

“Guys, I think I see something.” Josie mutters when she notices something at the back but her father and sister cannot hear her as they are still distracted by the loud howling coming from the front.

Josie sees a bush rustling and a dark snout appearing slowly from the bush. Soon, a dark brown wolf appears, its yellow eyes staring right at Josie. It growls softly and then charges. Josie shouts a spell to repel the charging wolf but she finds the spell not working. Her witch powers and the protection spell dead without any magic for her to siphon. The wolf pounces on her and Josie lands flat on her back with the wolf heavy on top of her, ready to kill her with one bite. Alaric turns around quickly and shoots at the wolf but the tranquilizer does not take its effect that fast with this strong wolf. Lizzie screams trying to cast a spell to keep the wolf off her sister but her magic is gone too.

Josie quickly grabs the wolf’s paw on her chest, siphoning the werewolf’s magic, and shouts a spell. Only that it is a little late. The bite has landed on her neck before the wolf is hurled off her.

“JOSIE!!”

Lizzie and Alaric run to their wounded family member but they are outrun by a white wolf who swiftly transforms back to human when she reaches Josie. Hope kneels and quickly cradles Josie in her arms.

“Jo! Josie!” Hope checks on Josie, a little relieved the wolf bite on her neck was not deep. Then Hope bites her own palm to draw her blood for the wounded girl. “Drink up, Jo.”

Josie takes the blood, sucking the familiar taste of Hope’s blood. She can feel the wolf-bite wound on her neck healing and the pain going away.

“You need clothes…” Those are Josie’s first words after her attack. Noticing Hope’s nakedness, Josie tries to get up, though weakly. She holds on to Hope, trying to cover the shorter girl’s body with hers. Josie then unzips and takes off her hoodie to put it around Hope.

“It’s ok, Jo.” Hope nods at Josie as she lets the taller girl slip the hoodie over her.

Josie zips up the hoodie on Hope, glad that her hoodie was long enough to cover the shorter girl’s body to below her hips. The two girls are still holding on to each other protectively as they watch Alaric walk past them.

“It’s Raf, alright.” Alaric announces as he walks over to a body lying a few feet away, finally unconscious from his tranquilizer and back to his human form after six long months.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ideas are flowing fast for this fic. If I go on at this writing speed, I'll' probably be able to post twice a week....unless work gets in the way.


	8. Chasing Cars

“He’s awake!” Landon announces when Raf open his eyes wearily.

Raf finds himself in bed. He looks around the room to see mostly familiar faces. His brother, Landon closest to him by the bed, gasps in joy and hugs him tight. But Raf does not return the hug. He is not used to such human contact. How long has it been? Then Raf notices her. The auburn-haired girl. The one he has been waiting, searching for. Mixed emotions arise in him. Anger, sadness, hurt, joy. 

Raf pushes his brother aside, as he sits up from his lying position and growls at Hope, his yellow eyes shining. That surprises everyone.

Hope is curious at Raf’s hostile reaction towards her but she is not intimidated. Instead she reaches out to Raf, slowly. Hope leans in from the other side of bed as she stares into Raf’s eyes, her hand gently touching his chest to calm him.

“Raf, it’s ok..” Hope soothes the boy.

“Hope?” Raf breaks into tears as he leans into the tribrid’s arms.

“He remembers you?” Landon asks. But truly that question was on everyone’s minds as well.

“Raf, what happen? What do you remember about me?” Hope asks, wondering too if Raf’s memories of her were not erased.

“I…I used the magic thing that you gave me to turn wolf against those triad members.” Raf reveals as he continues sobbing. “I…I was waiting for you, Hope. Why does it feel so so long? And why am I crying like this?”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry..” Hope comforts the werewolf, hugging him and patting his back.

“I think his wolf form prevented the memory erase. His emotions are probably a mess after so long. Six months in animal form is a long time.” Josie observes.

“Josie? Did I? Did I attack you?” Raf somehow recalls the incident.

“It’s fine, Raf. I’m fine.” Josie assures.

“You need to rest. And slowly adjust, ok? You need to take your time.” Hope advises.

“Yeah, Rafael. You don’t need to go back to classes so soon. Just rest.” Alaric adds.

“I’ll take care of him.” Landon offers as he squeezes his brother’s hand.

“If that’s the case, can I talk to you for a minute?” Hope asks Landon, surprising the ex-boyfriend with her request to actually finally talk to him? That surprised Josie as well, wondering if Hope is finally going to memory-revive Landon.

 ------

“Let’s take a walk outside.” Hope suggests when Landon met her in the hallway for the talk.

“Alright.” Landon shrugs, squeezing his hands into his back pockets. He feels slightly nervous and he has no idea why. Maybe it is true he was once in love with this girl. She does give him the kind of nerves when he’s wants to ask a girl he likes out. Hope Mikaelson is finally actually talking to him and not avoiding him on purpose now.

“Listen, Raf just got back to human form after several months so he will tend to act out in animalistic ways more than human. His anger issues may become uncontrollable..” Hope informs Landon. “So, you need to be really patient and keep him in check.”

“Got it.” Landon nods.

“The full moon is in a few days’ time and once again he will turn. So, this human form adjustment is gonna take more time and patience. You need to monitor him closely with care.”

“Got it.”

“I have a medicine which could help you with Raf. It was made by my Aunt Keelin. She’s a werewolf doctor and told me she drinks this to control her werewolf tendencies sometimes. Use this when his werewolf anger gets too much.” Hope hands a small bottle to Landon.

“Thank you.. Hope.” Landon accepts the medicine and is touched by her kind gesture.

“Ok, I guess you got it all.” Hope nods. “I should head back to my room now.”

“Erm, I could walk you there?” Landon offers.

“It’s fine. I know my way.”

“It’s just that… Do you plan on not reviving my memories at all?” Landon asks eventually.

The dreaded question. Hope takes a while to answer. “It’s for the best, Landon.”

“I don’t understand. Everyone. I mean you regained even Lizzie’s memories and now Raf has his memory too but I don’t get them? Was I a horrible boyfriend to you? Are you worried because you are seeing someone else? I mean, I promised I won’t bother you after. But me being the only one who doesn’t get to remember you is like worse than me being a species outcast in this school.” Landon cannot help but rant about this.

“It’s because I don’t plan to stay here. I don’t see the need to revive everyone’s memories. I’m sorry, but it’s for your own good, Landon.” Hope states.

Landon shakes his head in frustration and Hope understands how he feels. After some thought, she decides to go hard. “Listen, your relationship with Malivore. I know all about it.”

Landon is taken aback by that. He had been keeping the secret of his relationship with big bad of the year from everyone. “How… how do you know?”

“From your brother, Clarke when I jumped into Malivore. Your father, Malivore is out there somewhere. You are his host body. And since I have declared war on him, I would advise that you not get involved in my war and stay away as much as possible. I know this is not your fault, Landon. You are NOT Malivore but in order to protect yourself and your friends here, your secret identity must not be exposed.” Hope adds. “Only you, me and Josie knows this and we will keep this a secret.”

“Josie?”

“Yeah, but I trust Josie enough to keep it a secret. I’m sure you do too.”  

Landon takes it all in. Hope must think he will do something stupid if his memories of her do come back. He obviously does not want any enmity from the people in school if they find out he is Malivore’s son. And this is so far the safest place for him to stay away from his demon father.

“So, this is like blackmail. You and Josie keeping my secret in exchange that you don’t have to regain my memories?” Landon asks, though he seems to understand Hope’s decision a little more now.

“It is. Sorta..” Hope admits but promises. “And trust me, once I beat Malivore and everyone’s safe, I’ll get your memories back.”

Landon doesn’t say anything. What else is there to say?

“Deal?” Hope stretches her hand out to Landon to shake on that deal. Landon concedes and shakes her hand.

“Can I ask you something else?” Landon asks as they walk back to the school.

Hope nods.

“How did I manage to score a girl like you?”

Hope chuckles. “Because you were normal. And I wanted normal for a change.”

“That makes me sound boring.” Landon notes.

“Nah, normal was your best trait.” Hope crooks a small smile and then turns to head into the school. “Good night, Landon.”

\-----

Josie is pacing around her room.

“Sis, you are making me dizzy with your circling walks in our small room.” Lizzie tells her twin.

“Do you think she’s gonna regain his memories?” Josie asks her sister.

“Knew that irritable pacing had to do with that. I don’t know, sis. But if I’m Landon, I’ll probably be begging her to get those memories back.” Lizzie guesses. “Being the odd one out really sucks.”

“So, do you think they’ll get back together once she does get his memories back?” Josie wonders aloud.

“Well, I don’t know but I know it will suck for you, seeing how you got yourself into this weird love triangle.” Lizzie then asks. “Wait! Did you find out if Hope is some kind of soulmate of yours or something?”

Josie shakes her head. “But we kinda fought like girlfriends on the first night I got my memories back..”

“Really? Do tell..”

“It’s dumb, Lizzie. I got into a jealous fit when I caught Hope kissing both her hybrids. Honestly, it’s their business and Hope didn’t need to explain to me as if she got caught cheating on me. She even asked if I hated her for that. And then the next day she ended all things intimate with her hybrids. Do you think she has feelings for me? I don’t know, maybe I’m overthinking.”   

“Ok, that’s interesting. So…” Lizzie slowly takes in all of what her sister has said. “that means Gerald is single right?”

“Urgh! You are not helping!”

“Ok, ok. I’m sorry. I got distracted.” Lizzie apologizes. “Honestly…. I think our tribrid has always had a soft spot for you. Remember that smile on her when you admitted your crush to her? Like she totally forgot about your arson act on her room and the evil lies you created. Who is that forgivable?”

“You forgave me too..” Josie reminds her sister again.

“Cause you’re my sister. We have fights and we forgive.”  Lizzie reasons which Josie naturally agrees well.

But then Josie gives that another thought and she does not like it. Maybe it’s just sisterly feels Hope has for her?

“Oh..” Lizzie just then thinks of something else. “Did Hope tell you if she’s gonna stay here for school or she’s just here to help Raf and that’s it, she goes back to New Orleans? I mean since she came back, she’s not back to attending classes and all….so..”

“She didn’t say much… but I do know that before she decided to come down here to find Raf, she was determined not to come back to the school at all.” Josie remembers and can feel her heart breaking more at this thought now.

“Well, whether she stays or not? Maybe that would answer your questions about her feelings about you?” Lizzie suggests with a comforting squeeze on her sister’s hand.

\-----

Hope is lying on her bed, her familiar old dorm bed. Thinking. Planning.

Planning – When to go back to the bayou to continue training and gathering her hybrid army.

Thinking – How is she going to tell Josie she’s leaving? Tell her in person? Leave her a note? Leave without a word?

A knock on her door interrupts her thoughts. She guesses it is her hybrids because she did summon them to see her anyway. “Come in.”

Gerald and Amber open the door and find their alpha sitting comfortably on her bed. They stand around the bed, waiting for instructions but Hope is taking some time to speak.

“So, are we planning to stay or go? And if we are going, when?” Gerald decides to asks first.

“Won’t stay long. Maybe we’ll leave tomorrow or the day after.” Hope decides on the spot.

“Can’t we stay here for the long term?” Amber suggests. “They have all the facilities here for our training! A gym, a danger-free woods for werewolves. Cells for the mad wolf moments!”

“Guys, the bayou is the safest place for training…” Hope reminds. “There are kids here. As young as five! I’m not bringing my war here!”

“Hope, we are obviously not going to bring the war here!” Amber adds. “We will take it somewhere. But when more hybrids join us, this place definitely better with space and resources for all our training needs.”

Hope looks at Gerald who nods. “I have to agree with my cuz. I know she’s starting to make like-minded friends here and honestly, she’s a better person here than one in the bayou. Besides, the headmaster is keen to help us in our cause. Which means we have a whole school of werewolves, vampires and witches who have our backs. So, why are we rejecting all this?”

Hope buries her head in her hands, considering hard. She needs to talk to Alaric.

\-----

It is the morning of another day and Josie is standing outside Hope’s room but she is not knocking on the door yet. She wonders what was the outcome of Hope’s talk with Landon. She wants to know if Hope is staying or leaving. She’s also in a dilemma about wanting to know Hope’s feelings about her. She wants to know so that she can put her feelings of Hope into the right place. If Hope is just giving her sisterly love, she will be heart-broken but she will get over it and accept it. But Josie isn’t sure if she is able to get over it that easily. So that comes the part where she could just totally not find out what Hope feels about her. Just ignore and see where everything goes? Damn it! She hates guessing!

“Josie, are you looking for Hope?”

Josie finds her sister approaching her anxiously.

“I just saw Hope and her hybrids leaving with their stuff and all..” Lizzie tells her sister. “Do you think they are leaving already?”

Josie gasps in surprise and runs towards the exit. Outside the school, she sees Hope’s car leaving through the open gate. How can she just leave without a word? How can she do this to her? Josie gives chase to the car despite knowing she will never catch up. But she is angry, or sad, or disappointed at Hope for just leaving without a word. But what was she thinking? Hope left without a word six months ago! Josie runs with all her might, clutching at her chest where her heart rate is accelerating but is also aching at the same time.

“HOPE!!” She shouts at the car in the distance.

Josie has to stop to catch her breath, or rather because her chest is in pain. Not just the emotional heart pain but the piercing chest pains of the mud wound again. Josie let out cries of pain, her tears starting to blur her vision of the car that seems to be slowing down already. Not able to take the pain anymore, Josie drops to the ground, losing her consciousness and all she sees is blackness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is 8 chapters of slow-burn enough? *hint hint*


	9. A Taste of Sweetness

“Slow down. Is that Josie?” Amber in the back seat of the car turns around to take a better look at a girl running in a distance.

Hope, who is driving then hears Josie calling out her name and looks at the rear-view mirror, spotting that it is indeed Josie from afar running after them. The tribrid then steps hard on the brakes when she sees Josie collapsing onto the ground.

“Shit!” Hope opens the door and speeds over to Josie. She sees an extremely pale Josie with visible black veins from her chest to her neck. Hope recognizes the mud bullet injury but her heart breaks at the sight of Josie’s bi-weekly pain looking this serious. The poor girl has been suffering like this for months?

The tribrid quickly pulls the witch into her arms, filled with worry. She pats Josie’s cheek, calling to wake her up but Josie has no response, obviously deeply unconscious.

\------

“I wasn’t leaving Mystic Falls, Lizzie. We were just heading out to track three hybrids around the area.” Hope explains to the blond witch in the twins’ room. After they have treated Josie with Hope’s blood and placed the sleeping brunette in her bed, Hope had to clarify when Lizzie told her she and her sister had assumed she was leaving Mystic Falls.

“But you left with your bags and all.” Lizzie counters.

“It’s Amber’s tech stuff and some of my witch stuff! To track these guys!” Hope also adds. “And we’re staying in Mystic Falls. For the long term.”

“Crap! I’m sorry.” The blonde apologizes. “And I had no idea my sister would run like a maniac after you in a car! She could have just called you with a phone! The dumb things she does for YOU!”

Hope does not respond. Hope knows. She knows how Josie feels about her. From the beginning when Josie first confessed her crush on her, Hope thought she just liked the feeling of Josie being into her. It is only recent weeks that Hope discovers she is as into Josie as well. Hell, they even had girlfriend moments without realizing it. When Josie got bitten by Raf and today had fainted from that mud pain, Hope was worried sick. She cares about the girl so much that she can’t bear another day seeing her in pain. Then there was the time when Hope was worried about Josie hating her for her intimate relationship with the hybrid cousins that she ended it immediately. Not to mention that tickling session where Hope was so tempted to kiss Josie. How about the time when protective Josie covered the tribrid’s naked body with her hoodie and Hope actually liked it so much she just wanted to hold on to Josie for as long as she could. She wants Josie. She needs Josie. And Josie needs her.

The tribrid had a talk with Alaric last night where the headmaster encouraged Hope and her hybrids to stay in the school to continue studies while they work together with him to train and build an army to fight Malivore. Alaric also gave Hope some positive news that Hope could use the old mill in the woods as a base for her training as well as the new wing in the school for the accommodation of any new hybrids arriving. Hope had thanked Alaric with a tight hug and the headmaster thanked her back for once sacrificing herself to save everyone so it was only right that he returned the favour and support their common cause.

A phone alert rings out and it is Lizzie’s phone. The blonde checks on a text and tells Hope she needs to go for practice now and asks of the older girl to watch over her sister for a bit until her dad is back.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of her.” Hope tells Lizzie.

“Hope…” Lizzie advises before she leaves. “I don’t know how you feel about my sister. Whether as a friend or something more, just be truthful to her about it.”

Hope nods.

After Lizzie leaves the room, Hope moves over to Josie lying in her bed, not yet awake from her ordeal earlier. The paleness on the brunette is gone thanks to Hope’s blood again. The tribrid lies down next to Josie as she watches the brunette sleep but soon finds Josie flicking one eye open.

“Are you awake?” Hope notes how cute the brunette looks, like she is winking at her.  

“Hey..” Josie greets, opening both eyes now. “I ah.. I’m sorry. I was actually listening in earlier. I had to pretend to sleep, after having heard what Lizzie was saying about me. It’s too awkward to wake up and in get that conversation.”

“It’s fine..” Hope smiles as she reaches out to thumb the girl’s cheek.

“I’m glad you stayed, Hope.” Josie says, enjoying the tribrid’s warm gentle touch.             

“Glad I decided to stay in Mystic Falls or glad I stayed in your room now?”

“Both.” Josie cracks a smile.

“Jo.. why did you run when I’m just a phone call away?” Hope asks in a slightly serious but tender tone. Her hand still on Josie’s cheek.

Josie shakes her head. “I don’t know. I just reacted.” She starts to think how ridiculous it was. “Gosh.. You must think I’m a crazy stalker.”

Hope just shakes her head lightly.

“I mean, I even played out the biggest lie of my life to my parents so I can go on a trip to find you, whom I didn’t even know if I actually knew you! That is SO not me!” Josie recalls all her crazy acts aloud. “And like, why was I the only one who have dreams about you when all of us had no memories of you? Something is really wrong with me!”

“Hey!” Hope reaches with both hands to hold the brunette’s face now. “There’s nothing wrong with you! C’mon, I’ll probably do the same too.”

“No, you won’t! You’re Hope Mikaelson. Even your hybrids come to you. You don’t chase after someone like it’s a natural reaction!”

“I might if I have dreams of a Josie Saltzman.” Hope admits, then thinks of something. “Ok, let me ask you. Did you chase after Penelope? Did you chase after Landon?”

“No..” Josie admits.

“See! You’re not a crazy stalker.” Hope shrugs.

“Only a crazy stalker for Hope Mikaelson.. Urgh!” Josie covers her face with her hands now.

Hope sighs. “It’s fine, I actually liked being stalked by you.”

Josie uncovers her face now as she looks at the tribrid. “Hope, you don’t have to say these things to make me feel better, just because I feel that way about you.. Besides, what was I thinking? I already made things complicated when I dated Landon.”

“Landon has nothing to do with this.” Hope states firmly as she cups Josie’s chin now.

“But..” Josie can sense Hope’s impatience now. The tribrid looks so done with her already.

“Listen, you need to shut up about your crazy self because there are two things I wanna do with you and you need to tell me which one would shut you up right away. Number One – Let me chase after you like crazy stalker Hope so we are even? Or number two – Let me just kiss you already?” Hope lays out two options.

“Ermm…” Josie swallows as she shamelessly picks the obvious choice. “Kiss?”  

“You sure you don’t want the chase?” Hope double-checks, raising an eyebrow.

Josie shakes her head. Fuck the chase!

“But I’d still like to chase you.” Hope smiles, as she leans in and gently brushes a kiss on Josie’s lips. Then she pulls back just to check on Josie’s reaction.

Josie is staring at the girl who just kissed her. Her ocean blue-eyed badass crush. She then remembers avoiding this kiss not too long ago because she was so afraid of giving in to a sexually driven Hope who likely was not ready for a relationship. But now that ‘damage’ had been done and the kiss is still lingering on her lips, making her wanting more?! Fuck it!

Josie pulls Hope back, parting her lips for a deeper kiss. The tribrid takes and probes, tasting all of the siphon’s sweetness, a hint of honey and thin raw blood, her blood. Hope naturally moves on top of Josie, seduced by Josie’s soft moan of want. Straddling, kissing and wanting alluring Josie Saltzman. Josie is relishing the tribrid’s minty inviting tongue, going slow yet needy. Gosh, Hope Mikaelson knows how to kiss. Josie doesn’t even care if it is Horny Hope kissing her now. She just wants this kiss to last forever.

The passionate tribrid is so engrossed in her first kiss with the zealous siphon that even her vampire hearing is on silent mode. Which means in between soft whimpers and ragged breaths, she is oblivious to hearing incoming footsteps and the door opening.

“OH!” Alaric covers his eyes upon seeing the 18-year-old making out again, and this time it turns out to be with his 16-year-old daughter. “Hope Mikaelson! Do I always have to catch you in this position?”

Hope practically jumps off the bed and catches her breath. “Gosh, Ric! Do you always have to come in at the most inappropriate time?”  

“Are you sure you still wanna call me RIC?!” Alaric warns the young tribrid.

“We-“ Hope tries to explain.

“Dad! Hope was just…. taking care of me.” Josie tries to explain as well, though not that well.

“Dr Saltzman..” Hope changes to a more respectful tone.

“Go to your room, Hope.” Alaric tells the girl.

 -----

Amber sets up her equipment in the motel room. Thankfully this motel has good quality wifi.

“The system is up, Hope.” Amber announces. “The hybrids are only a few miles away.”

But the alpha was not paying attention. She’s busy checking her phone. She has been texting Josie the past few hours but has not gotten any reply so far. Since she left the twins’ room after getting caught in the act, Hope decided to move on with her hybrid tracking mission. She texted Josie this time, so that the girl is aware of her whereabouts.  Hope double-checks if her texts were actually sent.

_Hey Jo, I’m off to my hybrid tracking mission again. In case you can’t find me. (Sent 13.04hrs)_

_Should be back before midnight. (Sent 13.06hrs)_

_We have set up base in a small motel. Guessing the hybrids will make a rest stop here. (Sent 14.36hrs)_

_Are you okay? I hope you are just asleep. (Sent 15.02hrs)_

_Is this about the kiss? (Sent 15.34hrs)_

_I just wanna say that it was real. It wasn’t the horny hormones, ok? (Sent 15.36hrs)_

_Josie, you are worrying me now!! (Sent 16.01hrs)_

“Hope!” Amber calls out to her alpha.

“What?” Hope finally looks up from her phone.

Amber repeats that her tracking system is up and ready.

“Ok, good. Where’s Gerald?” The tribrid only notices now that her other hybrid is missing.

“Went to get some food from the diner?” Amber reminds Hope. “Are you okay? You’ve been distracted.”

“Nothing. Just checking my messages.”

“Checking on Josie?” Amber guesses.

“She’s not answering my texts.”

“Maybe she’s asleep? The girl collapsed from an unexplainable pain. She’s probably resting.”

“For more than three hours? She was wide awake when I left her room. VERY wide awake!”

“Describe WIDE AWAKE, Hope.” Amber senses something and raises a cheeky brow at her alpha.

Hope refuses to answer. She thinks of something else. She will text Lizzie.

_Hey Lizzie. Is Josie ok? She’s not answering my texts._

“Did you wake her senses up? The way you do best?” Amber continues probing Hope.

Hope ignores Amber again but perks up at the message alert tone on her phone. Lizzie replied.

_She’s grounded, Hope! For a week!_

What? Why the fuck did Alaric ground Josie just for making out with a tribrid? Hope is mad. But to be sure, she checks with Lizzie again.

_GROUNDED? For what?_

_Lizzie replied: For that secret New Orleans trip she made to find u. Dad probably forgot about it but Josie must have done something to make him mad and he remembered the stunt she did previously._

Shit! Before she could properly date the girl, she got her grounded. Hope grunts at herself.

Lizzie texts again.

_Do u know what she did to make dad mad? Y do I think u have something to do with this?_

Hope considers if she should tell Lizzie but she would like to have an accomplice in Lizzie. At least, she knows Lizzie does not hate her like she does with Josie’s ex, Penelope. So, she texts Lizzie.

_Hope: Your dad caught me kissing your sister_

_Lizzie: WTF?! U sure didn’t waste time after my advice, did ya?_

_Hope:  I like your sister, Lizzie. A lot. N I’m worried about her now. What kind of grounded r we talking about? Do I even get to talk to her during the week?_

_Lizzie: Hope, ur gonna get nothing from my sister. Josie got the silent cloaking punishment. That’s the worst kind!_

_Hope: WTF is that?!_

_Lizzie: Dad got Emma to put a special cloaking spell on Josie where no one can see or talk to her, except the adults for a week. No phones. No spells. You’re getting invisible Josie even when she attends classes._

_Hope: Fuck.._

_Lizzie: I know.._

_Hope: I hate your dad now._

_Lizzie: Who doesn’t?_

Hope sighs in frustration and then decides to text Alaric.

_I hate you._

Alaric replies almost immediately.

_Good! I hope that means u care that much about my daughter. How’s the hybrid tracking going so far?_

_Hope: We need a few more hours at the motel. They should be passing by soon. Why do u have to give her the worst punishment?_

_Alaric: Because she lied. Big Time! Got her mother waiting at the airport for nothing. I have never seen Josie do something like that before. My daughter sure did the crazy for u, Hope. The least u could do is respect my decision._

_Hope: I’ll respect u if u respect your daughter’s happiness, Ric._

_Alaric: I’m gonna count your word on that. N it’s Dr Saltzman, kiddo._

_Hope: Sure, Ric._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I edited this chapter so much my brain is fried. Hope y'all like it though.


	10. Missing

Being grounded in invisible mode sucks but it does have its perks. Josie hates that she can’t talk to her friends and particularly Hope for a week but she could at least watch them, or listen to any gossip without them noticing her weird stares and sniggers. The day when she got caught making out with Hope, Alaric suddenly remembered Josie’s defying stunt in her Finding Hope mission which he had yet to lay any punishment on his daughter. Punishment which Josie previously told her dad she was willing to accept. Her dad was not mad at the whole making out with the tribrid affair, but he needed Josie to remember she has to pay the price for her previous act. Josie accepted the punishment without argument. The cloaking spell that Emma placed on her will prevent her to have any contact with her peers but because she still needs to attend classes, only her dad and the teachers are able to see and interact with her. Of course, this kind of punishment is no fun but she is not too upset with it, knowing she will still get to see Hope, though with no interaction at all. At night where only Lizzie gets to see and talk with her, Lizzie reported to her that Hope has been worried about her since she got grounded and also showed Josie the text where Hope admitted she likes Josie.. A LOT. That was enough to mend her missing Hope heart.  

Grounded Josie hasn’t seen Hope for 3 days and she is missing the girl even more. She heard from her sister that the tribrid had been busy with her hybrid business. That she managed to track her three hybrids already and had been working with Alaric on their accommodation and training needs. She heard that the three hybrids are adults, not teenagers. Without Hope attending classes for days, Josie wonders when she would finally get to see her.

Finally, on Day 4 of her grounded life, Josie catches Hope arriving into alchemy class. Josie is seated beside Lizzie on the fourth row and even though she’s invisible to everyone except the teacher, she can sense the tribrid’s eyes searching for her invisible self. Hope takes the empty seat two aisles across the twins. This is when Josie takes the opportunity to stare admiringly at the auburn-haired beauty she missed so much. After all, no one can see what she’s doing. Hope is also not really paying attention in class. She has been doodling on her notepad and has taken occasional glances at the empty seat beside Lizzie, probably wondering if it is occupied by a cute brunette she can’t see.

“Josie!”

Josie jolts to attention upon hearing her name. It was Emma the teacher calling her out.

“You do know I can still see you. Now it would be nice if you actually pay attention by looking at me and not at someone else.” Emma advises.

“Sorry, Ms Emma.” Josie blushes and apologizes which only the teacher is able to hear. The siphon then steers her attention to the front, but not forgetting to steal a glance at Hope who is now lightly shaking her head with a wide smile.  

During lunch, Hope is standing in a corner of the dining area, observing the crowd of students having lunch. She sees Gerald and Amber blending in well. Gerald chatting with Jed and the pack. Amber surprisingly flirting with a witch in the witches’ table. Lizzie busy chatting with MG and Kaleb. Hope watches if the blonde at least glances to her side to where her sister possibly sits. But no, Lizzie’s attention is only on the boys and the only glances she does steal are all directed to Gerald at the wolves’ table. WHERE IS SHE? Hope wonders about the girl she misses so much. Ever since Josie got grounded in invisible mode, Hope decided to focus on her new hybrids’ training and living arrangements. Now that things are mostly settled, Hope is back to attending classes and wishes to at least try to sense Josie’s presence. Thanks to her sense of smell and Ms Emma, Hope was aware Josie was in alchemy class and possibly missing her as much as she does.  

Just then Hope feels a light nudge at her side and she turns to see no one. But Hope is able to smell and recognize her. Oh Sweet Josie. Hope grins in response though she isn’t sure what she is looking at.

“Josie?” Hope asks but of course she will not get a verbal confirmation. What she gets is a hand reaching to hold hers.

“God..I miss you.” Hope confesses, her fingers wrap tight over Josie’s hand.

 _“I miss you too.”_ Josie leans closer to Hope’s side, whispering to her though knowing the tribrid can’t hear her.

Hope can feel Josie’s hot breath near her ear and even though she cannot hear Josie speak, she somehow can sense her thoughts. “Wait. I think I can hear your thoughts.”

Josie is surprised. How is it that Hope is able to hear her thoughts? Josie wonders. But if that was so, Hope has so far not shown any knowledge of reading her thoughts. Maybe it is only when Josie wants Hope to hear it. Josie releases her hand from Hope, just to see if Hope can read her thoughts without touch and asks Hope “ _Did you hear what I was thinking last?”_

“You said you miss me too?” Hope whispers.

 _“Hope, I think you can hear my thoughts only when I want you to, even without touch.”_ Josie tells the tribrid.

“Seriously? Can you read mine too?” Hope asks.

Josie tries to read Hope’s thoughts and gets a “ _Kiss me, Jo._ ”

 _“That you want me to kiss you now?”_ Josie replies.

Hope lets out a laugh. Delighted with this new discovery of telepathy between them. How did this happen? Hope wonders aloud.

 _“I don’t know but I’m most obliged to give you that kiss now.”_ Josie answers as she snakes her hand around Hope’s waist, leaning in to kiss the shorter girl. Hope gasps, enjoying this weirdly invisible but familiar wet kiss. She then realizes people will start noticing her very public steamy self-indulgence with her mouth half open. Hope breaks the kiss and searches for Josie’s hands.

“Let’s go to my room.” Hope pulls what she thinks is Josie’s left hand and drags her along the hallway and up the stairs to her room. Hope shuts her room door and can feel Josie’s lips crushing on hers. Hope has no idea what to do with her hands since she can’t see the taller girl. She lets Josie lead the way, feeling Josie slim hands pulling her in around her waist again. Leading Hope to her bed, the tribrid finds herself being swirled around and led to sit on the comfort of her bed. She can feel Josie straddling her now, with her tongue still in Josie’s invisible mouth. Hope realizes that as long as she shuts her eyes, her hands are able to sense and explore invisible Josie better. She finds the contours of the siphon’s hips and travels to find her bare lower back underneath what she guesses is her cardigan. Josie is breaking their kiss for a moment, but her warm body still pressed against Hope’s. The tribrid then feels a trail of sultry kisses going from her jawline down to her neck.

“Oh god..” Hope moans.

“ _You smell so good_..” Josie slurs in between kisses. The tribrid probably uses D&G but even her sweat smells good.

“Ohhhh you smell even better..” Hope groans feeling Josie’s kisses moving down her chest now. This is new to Hope. Letting the other person lead but she is so not complaining. Josie’s hands have now gone under Hope’s shirt, caressing her back. The hands have also expertly found the clasp of her bra. But before she can feel the release of the clasp, the door flings open. Hope stares at the 2nd person who never knocks! She can feel Josie quickly moving away to the side.

“What the fuck, Lizzie?! Don’t you knock?” Hope exclaims at the blond twin who appears at the door.

“What? You’re dressed.” Lizzie states, seeing Hope on her bed, fully clothed, trying to sit up and looking normal?

“What is it you want?” Hope asks in annoyance.

“I can’t find my sister. I’m worried. Did you see her?” Lizzie asks.

Hope tries not to side glance at the unseen human form beside her.

“SEE WHAT?! I can’t even see her!” Hope gives Lizzie the “duh” look.

“Right! I forgot.” Lizzie shakes her head at her dumb self.

“And how do you expect to find her if you can’t see her?” Hope is curious.

“I’m her twin. I can somehow sense her.” Lizzie reveals.

 _Is it possible she can smell you or read your mind like I do?_ Hope asks Josie through her mind.

 _No, Hope. But she can sometimes feel my body senses_. Josie clarifies.

 _What senses?_ Hope curiously turns to look to her left, forgetting the brunette beside her is not visible.

This catches Lizzie’s attention and the blond twin guesses out loud. “JOSIE SALTZMAN! I know you’re in here!! I knew my senses were right!! You horny….”

Hope can see Lizzie being pushed walking backwards, her voice likely muffled by an invisible hand over her mouth as she is led out of the door.

_See you here at lunch tomorrow, Hope!_

_See you, Jo!_ Hope grins as she receives that message from Josie in her head before the door closes.

\------

“This is interesting.” Freya tells her niece when Hope updates her on the phone about her recent telepathic connection with Josie.         

“Yeah, but it only works when we are in close proximity. I tried mind-talking to her after she left my room and was probably back in her room but got nothing.” Hope gives her latest observation.

“It could be some connection formed since she is drinking your blood?” Freya then shakes her head on this theory. “No, it can’t be. Several people drink your blood and doesn’t connect with you like this.”

“I know. It’s weird but at the same time, it feels kinda amazing.” Hope blurts out.

“Hmm, is my niece falling weak for the cute witch already?” Freya catches something and teases her niece.

“Aunt Freya!!” Hope is slightly relieved her aunt can’t see her face turning red now.

Freya chuckles. “I knew this would happen!” The older witch is now heard talking to her wife in the background. “Keelin, I told you something was gonna happen between those two.”

“Really? Hope and Josie?” Hope can hear Keelin’s voice in the background and Hope rolls her eyes at her two aunts shamelessly gossiping about her and letting her hear it all.

“You do know we have some new weird shit to solve now, right?” Hope reminding her aunt to refocus.

“Of course, and I will add that to my current research on Josie’s mud pain and your blood. I need time to find the answers.” Freya refocuses.

“Great! I really want to help Josie end her mud pain as soon as possible, Aunt Freya. The pain looked unbearable.” Hope’s tone turns serious.

“I’ll do my best, sweetie. You just take care of your girl and keep working on your hybrid army.”

“Thank you. Ok, I gotta go. Love you.” Hope tells her aunt as she prepares to end the call.

“Love you too. And ah….” Freya just wants to give one more advice to her niece before she hangs up. “I married a wolf so I know from experience. Just try not to bite the girl too hard, Hope.”

“Aunt Freya!!!” Hope exclaims but the line went dead already.

\------

 _Your girl_. Hope can hardly believe her aunt had already approved of Josie before she has actually claim Josie as hers. The thought of it still send butterflies to her stomach. Hope does want to claim Josie, she realizes. They only haven’t gotten the chance to talk about that yet. Hope is in history class now. A class which Josie is not in with her. But it will be lunch time after this class and Hope can finally see Josie in her room. Well, not actually see her but feel her. As soon as the class ended, Hope jumps out of her seat and basically brisk walk towards her room, trying hard not to use her vamp speed. She is only a few metres away from her room before she is stopped by Landon. The ex-boyfriend approaches her, a panic look on his face.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do. I gave Raf that medicine but it doesn’t seem to be working.” Landon reports to Hope.

“Oh.” Hope glances towards her room door across the hall, not sure if Josie is waiting there but she nods to Landon. “Ok, I’ll come with you.”

Josie is standing outside Hope’s room when she spots Hope speaking to Landon and then following the ex-boyfriend somewhere. Of course, Josie is curious. Just curious, not being stalky at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, there will be answers to their unique connection in a few chapters later. For now, let's enjoy the hosie fluff ;)


	11. Wanting More

Landon leads Hope to Raf’s room where she finds the werewolf’s room in a mess with broken stuff lying everywhere. Raf is standing facing the grilled window, his hands gripping on the grills.

“Raf?” Hope approaches slowly but Raf turns around with a strong swing of his right arm, not wanting anyone near him. This takes Hope by surprise as she is hurled backwards, losing her balance. Before she could use her tribrid reflex, she finds her upper body held up and getting her up to her feet steadily. Hope realizes it wasn’t Landon who stopped her fall but something else.

“Wooh, that is some cool witch spell to stop a fall! Or is it a tribrid thing?” Landon asks Hope, wide-eyed at the scene before him.

Hope knows it is neither. She smells her again. _Josie?_ Hope asks in silent, feeling a pair of hands supporting her back.

 _I’m sorry I followed you when I saw you and Landon going somewhere._ Josie responds.

 _It’s fine. Raf needs help_. Hope replies in mind again.

“Hope, you ok?” Landon asks when Hope did not respond to him.

 _Don’t tell them I’m here, Hope. I know Landon’s still mad at me._ Josie advises.

_Ok._

“I’m fine, Landon.” Hope finally clarifies as she remembers. “I think Raf is unable to control his werewolf tendencies since it will be the full moon tonight and the wolfing out urges are too strong. The medicine is not helping much in this case.”

“I just need to get out of here!” Raf cries out as he sits down on the floor, pulling his knees to his chest. “I can’t stay inside here any longer!”

“You need rest, Raf.” Landon advises his brother.

 _I think He needs bigger spaces. He’s probably feeling restrained in this room._ Josie guesses to Hope.

Hope agrees with Josie and thinks of a solution. “Tell you what, we’ll take you to the old mill. My hybrids are there training. They’ll take care of you, Raf.”

“Really? I can get out of here?” Raf checks, anticipation in his eyes.

Hope nods and adds more advice. “Just train with them to release those urges. When you turn tonight, run with us. We’ll guide you so you won’t run too far.”

Raf nods enthusiastically but Landon is still looking at Hope for assurance.

“He’ll be fine, Landon.” Hope assures. “Can you bring him to the mill now? I’ll catch up in a while.”

“Thank you, Hope. Once again.” Landon nods and approaches his brother, offering a hand to lift the werewolf up.

“I’m sorry about my rage earlier, Land..” Raf apologizes as he grabs his brother’s hand. Standing up, Raf drapes an arm over Landon’s shoulder and the two brothers head out of the room.

After Landon and Raf stepped out, Hope silently calls for Josie who answers with her hand slipping into Hope’s.

 _I’m afraid I have to take a rain check on our lunch date_. Hope tells Josie.

_It’s fine. There’s still tomorrow._

_Yes._ Hope tries to kiss the girl but is not sure where to lead her lips to. _Darn, I wanna see you so badly so that I can at least surprise you with a kiss_.

In response, Hope gets a kiss from the siphon but only a light one.

Hope pouts at receiving just a peck. _Are you mad at me?_

_No, I know you need to go._

_You’re the best. Now give me a longer kiss._

\-----

Because it is the full moon, all witches and vampires are on mandatory house arrest in the school while the wolves run wild out in the nearby woods. Josie looks out from her room window. It is a perfect view from the twins’ room on the top floor, where Josie is catching the surreal sight of wild and free wolves running in packs and howling in gleeful tunes. The vamps and witches sometimes envy the wolves for having their monthly wild party runs, having the whole woods to themselves. Josie is not sure which white wolf among them is Hope but she is at least happy that Hope is having a born-free party with her friends.

Two more days. Josie counts. Two more days and Hope will finally see her for real and give her all the surprise kisses she wants.

“So, what are you and Hope now, Jos?” Lizzie asks her sister who after curfew hours is at least visible and communicable to her. “I mean you guys kissed and then you got grounded and then you guys managed to make out again. Are you like official girlfriends now?”

“Ermm..” Josie realizes that thought has not really crossed her mind. To be honest, she already feels like Hope and her are a thing. A real thing. Even without discussing. But wasn’t it just days before that she was worried she will fall hard for Horny Hope who once said she was not looking for a relationship? 

“Hold on. Obviously, you guys didn’t get to talk about it since you can’t communicate and can only feel each other up.” Lizzie chuckles. “What was I thinking?”

But they are able to communicate, through their minds. Josie has not told Lizzie about her telepathic connection with Hope because she wasn’t sure if this connection is even permanent. Maybe it’s only temporary during her grounded cloaking spell status.

Maybe Hope and her should talk about this… if they can.

\-----

Josie is very hungry during lunch on this new day. She cannot get enough of minty Hope’s kisses, of her soft fair skin, of her scent. This time, Josie has managed to unclasp the tribrid’s bra and removed it along with Hope’s shirt. Josie gasps as she takes in the tribrid’s perfectly shaped assets.

Hope is dying. Dying of pleasure. Josie is doing everything right. So right Hope is almost mad at herself for not being able to return the same treatment. All she could do is close her eyes and visualize sexy Josie kissing her, tongue and fingers teasing her very erect nipples now. She wants Josie so much it is killing her. She wants to taste Josie. All of Josie. And to at least look at her when she pleases her. The tribrid lets out moan as Josie moves down, trailing wet kisses down her abdomen.

When Josie tugs at Hope’s skirt waistband, ready to take off the rest of her clothes, Hope reluctantly calls time-out. “Stop stop..”

This surprises Josie and Hope can feel the kisses and the tugging stopped.

“I..I think we should wait.” Hope explains as she catches her breath. She can’t see Josie’s expression so she quickly explains. “I wanna make love to you, Jo. I wanna SEE and touch my girlfriend when I make love to her. I want that for our first time.”

Josie is smiling and to be honest, she is probably close to tears. Hope Mikaelson had Josie Saltzman at the words “make love” and “girlfriend”.

But Hope is not reading anything from Josie’s mind and that is because Josie is not saying anything to her yet.

“Jo?” Hope checks.

“I’ll wait. I’ll wait as long as you want.” Josie tells Hope, as she helps the tribrid put her shirt back on.

“Ok, but it won’t be long since it’s just tomorrow, right?” Hope is still searching for Josie’s actual reaction. “I hate guessing how you feel when I can’t see you and you are.. you are not talking to me.”

“Hope…” Josie reaches out to hold the older girl’s cheeks as she admits. “I’m just not reacting fast enough because I’m still reacting to actually being Hope Mikaelson’s girlfriend.”

“Is that a good thing or bad thing?”

“It’s more than I can ask for! I mean you did say you weren’t looking for a relationship in the first place.”

“Well, I didn’t want a relationship because of the current war I’m in but you’ve made me question my priorities. Thing is why can’t I have both? A girlfriend who understands and supports my mission too?” Hope shrugs.

She gets a tight hug in return. “I can do that.” Josie assures her girlfriend.

\------

“Jed, I’m not fighting you.” Raf tells the former alpha. He just wanted a quiet workout in the morning at the gym and he has to be confronted by this.

“Well, you have to if you don’t wanna to be alpha now. You know the rules!” Jed challenges.

“Why do we have to do this shit again? You were Alpha when I was gone six months ago! You can keep it!” Raf pushes Jed away.

Jed jumps on Raf, throwing a punch at the comeback werewolf. Raf takes the blow badly as he lands on his back on the mat. The gym is now filled with whistles and claps from the werewolf pack, cheering the fight on.

“Then fuckin fight me! Once I win, it’s official I’m the rightful Alpha!” Jed moves on top of Raf as he throws another punch to Raf’s cheek.

The yellow shines bright in Raf’s eyes as he takes in more punches. Raf plans to lose. He doesn’t want the title anymore. He has been gone six months and he doesn’t miss this shit at all.

“Fuck, Raf! Fight back!” Jed hates to win this way. “Fight me like you did the first time you took the title from me!” 

Raf refuses. He just wants to piss Jed off and let Jed win it without a fight. And this made Jed even madder and his punches grow harder. Raf’s face swollen and bloodied now.

“STOP IT, Jed!”

Jed hears the warning voice of another Alpha. Hope. The werewolf stops punching Raf and stands up. He sees Hope approaching him in big strides and despite her petite size, he is rather intimidated by her. He has no memory of this tribrid but if she’s a tribrid with three full powers, he should be careful. Plus, he has seen her training her hybrid pack in the old mill and he knows she’s no pushover.

“Hey, I’m just following rules.” Jed raises both his hands.

“He’s down! Isn’t it obvious you won already?” Hope’s stares down at Jed, though she’s way shorter than him and is technically staring up at him. Jed does feel like he’s being stared down. He can feel his pack sneering and sniggering at him for taking a slight step back from the petite auburn-haired girl.

“Look, I’ve been in this school for 3 years. You and your hybrids can’t just come in here and act like you own the pack here.” Jed decides to be a little brave.

“Jed, you are only Alpha here because I didn’t want it for the past ten years.” Hope corrects him.

“Then why are you one now? Because you prefer to lead hybrids than us mere wolves?”

“So, are you saying want me to lead you and your pack as well?” Hope catches on.

“What? I…I  didn’t say that..” Jed shakes his head, stuttering a little.

“Want me to take that title from you the traditional way too?” Hope challenges.

“Do it, Jed! Go Jed!!” the werewolf pack chants.

Jed is sweating with worry. He knows that even if Hope does not use her witch powers, her wolf coupled with vampire strength will beat his ass down within seconds. He did see her in the old mill taking down two hybrids at one time.

Hope can see that Jed is thinking hard not to take up her challenge. She remembers Jed was in her super squad before. He was her willing ally. He used to look up to her. There was mutual respect. And honestly, she wants the wolves and her hybrids to get along because she needs a good strong team now. 

“Tell you what, Jed. All I want is for us to get along.” Hope stretches her hand out. “You lead your pack and I lead my pack. And we can train and work together to kick Malivore’s ass. Alright?”

Jed looks at his pack where some are shrugging and some nodding and some shaking their heads at him. He considers for a minute and then accepts it with a handshake. It is a deal he should accept. He’s not stupid.

“Let’s go.” Jed tells his pack as they take their leave from the gym.

 Hope walks over to Raf and offers her hand to get him up from the mat. “Let’s fix that face, Raf.”

“It’s ok, I’ll heal.” Raf rubs the back of his neck as he manages to crook a smile.

“You know you could just like give him a bloodied face too and still lose.” Hope suggests as she takes a seat at a bench in the gym.

Raf shakes his head as he takes a seat next to Hope. “Nah, I guess I enjoy pissing him off.”

“Why did you refuse your alpha title, Raf? You were good at it.” Hope asks.

“You know I took the title then because I wanted to take council position and keep Landon here. I didn’t even think long term. If you ask me, I rather have you as my alpha, Hope.” Raf admits.

“But I can’t. Jed is your alpha.” Hope reminds.

“But if you turn me…” Raf mutters.

“No!” Hope does not like the idea. “Raf, it’s a bad idea.”

“Why can’t I, Hope? Why do you think you gave me that magic item that lets me turn when I need to work on my issues?” Raf adds. “Now that you have taken that thing back, another best way is for you to just turn me and I can wolf out and turn back human without you being around, right?”

“Raf, there are consequences to being my hybrid.” Hope explains. “You will be sired to me. It’s different with Jed the Alpha because you can still defy or challenge him if you think he’s not fit as a leader or is making bad decisions. When I give a command, my hybrids naturally obey and do it. Do you really want to be under a sire alpha?”

“Well, it’s not like you make bad decisions, Hope.”

“But I do. Which is why I don’t always command my hybrids before I actually let them hear my decisions first.” Hope reveals.

“There you said it. You are a fair leader, Hope.” Raf smiles at the girl. He sure had a crush on her for a reason. She’s a great leader and friend. She’s pretty. She’s bad ass. And she’s no longer dating his brother.

Hope just sighs and then she looks over Raf’s shoulder, spotting an endearing face she misses so much. Josie is standing coolly at the entrance of the gym, arms folded and smiling at Hope. Hope is smiling back with glee as well. Her girl is finally back. Back before her eyes! Looking so pretty with her bright brown eyes and flowy hair.

Raf notices a surprisingly elated looking Hope all of a sudden. Then he realizes she is not looking at him. He turns around and sees Josie standing in a distance at the big gym doors.

“Talk later, Raf.” Hope stands up and squeezes lightly on his shoulder. “I gotta go.”

Raf watches as Alpha Hope skips over to the siphon witch, grabbing the other girl’s hand as they leave the gym in giggles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut warning, next chapter ;)


	12. Love is in the air

Hope Mikaelson is pretty sure she’s in love.

She is staring at the ceiling in her room again, smiling at her own thoughts. Smiling at the contentment she’s feeling now. She can feel the person she’s in love with nuzzling into her neck again, letting out a soft whimper from a satisfied sleep, or rather satisfied sex. Josie’s arm lies comfortably over Hope’s bare bosom as she continues to sleep peacefully. Hope is glad it is a non-school day and they can spend the whole day like this without interruptions. She had given her hybrids the day off from training and Alaric and Lizzie are out shopping in town. And Josie, who’s free from grounded life, can spend the day with the person she loves. Yes, Josie loves her too.

Josie Saltzman is such a romantic.

Hope was happy enough that Josie’s uncloaking day was on a Saturday and an off day from her hybrid training and war planning. But she was pleasantly surprised with her girlfriend’s romantic efforts. When she pulled Josie from the gym to her room, she realized that her room had already been broken in…by her girlfriend. Josie had prepared a nicely decorated dish of pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon on a breakfast tray displayed on the tribrid’s bed.

“I made breakfast.” The brunette announced her surprise romantic present.

“But-“ Hope added regretfully. “I didn’t do anything for you.”

“It’s fine. You can do things to me later.” Josie kissed Hope’s cheek as she pulled her girlfriend over to sit on the bed with the breakfast tray in between them. “Bon Appetite!”

“You’re looking especially pretty today. Your hair is down without the hair clip for once. I like that.” Hope complimented her girlfriend as she fed Josie a piece of her pancake.

“It’s been a week since you last saw me in visible form and all you noticed is me missing a hair clip?” Josie asked, lightly shaking her head.

“I smell a different perfume too.” Hope added. “And maybe new underwear?”

“Hope!” Josie blushed as she covered her mouth in surprise. “It’s not fair you can smell this much. Now I feel like I have to shower at least four times a day!”

“I can’t help it. Wolf senses.” Hope shrugged proudly and then complimented the girlfriend again. “You don’t have to shower at all and I would still love your natural scent. Even the scent of your sweat turns me on.”

Josie did not respond immediately. She was taking in the compliment and then she blurted out. “I love yours too.”

Josie thought about the taste of Hope when she necked her and even loving the light saltiness of her sweat. It was like she was in love with all things Hope Mikaelson.

“You’re in love with me?” Hope suddenly asked and Josie realized that she had just let Hope read her mind.

Josie covered her face. “Darn, I thought the telepathic connection was over once you are able to see me but looks like it’s not.”

Hope removed the tray containing their half-eaten breakfast and placed it away from the bed. She then crawled closer to Josie, her arms moved to Josie’s waist, enveloping the brunette.

“I love all things Josie Saltzman too.” Hope confessed as she kissed the tip of Josie’s nose. “I love her kisses…”

Hope covered Josie’s mouth passionately with hers, getting a pleasurable whimper out of the siphon.

“I love her sexy moan.” Hope added as she kissed Josie’s neck.

“I love her helpful hands too.” Hope raised her eyebrow when she felt Josie’s hands already removing Hope’s shirt and reaching for her bra.

 Josie chuckled at another of the tribrid’s cute compliment as she had swiftly removed everything from Hope’s upper body.

“I love..” Hope continued but Josie’s lips crushing on hers stopped her from finishing her sentence.

“You.” Josie helped with her own words, breaking their kiss for a bit, and looking into those ocean blue eyes. “I Love You, Hope.”

A rush of affection filled Hope’s heart and she pulled Josie to reciprocate what the brunette had just confessed to her. A kiss she would never want to break if she could. The two girls hurriedly removed whatever clothes left on them. Hope was so thankful she could finally see all of her glorious, slender, naked girlfriend after a week of invisible Josie. She did not waste time, pulling Josie under her while she held their unbreakable kiss.

“This time…” Hope whispered near Josie’s ear. “My turn to give.”

The tribrid was leaving tender kisses on the siphon’s neck but when she felt the siphon’s finger reaching down to tease lightly on her clit, the tribrid passion heightened and ended up kissing the siphon’s neck harder. So hard she realized she had marked Josie’s neck with love bites.

Hope reluctantly reached down to stop the girlfriend’s teasing finger, stating firmly to Josie. “I said I GIVE. You just need to receive.”

“Sorry, I can’t help it.” Josie admitted. “Can I at least give later? After you give?”

She got a “YES” kiss from Hope before the auburn-haired head was back to Josie’s chest level, giving her boobs some sensuous treatment with the hungry tongue. Josie had to resist the temptation to grope Hope’s boobs so she shut her eyes as she let her girlfriend take charge. Being an alpha must be such an occupational hazard.

“I heard that.” Hope told Josie after hearing her thoughts about her alpha ways.

“Fuck…” Josie grunted but not so much at herself letting her thoughts read again but more to Hope’s fingers reaching down and giving her clit some pleasurable strokes by then.    

It probably only took two minutes for Josie to give in to Hope’s fingers playing between her wet folds and her sensitive nub. The brunette grabbed the tribrid’s back as the rush of orgasm hits, her thighs clamping Hope’s hand in the aftermath of orgasm.

Now Josie was determined to complete what she did not get to finished yesterday when she was still invisible. Tasting and pleasuring the tribrid.  Hope had by then taken a break by lying down on her back, with a satisfied grin from having successfully made Josie Saltzman cum. She was celebrating this thought until she felt the tender kisses on the side of her pelvic. She looked down to see Josie trailing kisses down her thigh now. The siphon had found her way between the tribrid’s thighs and was kissing her inner thighs now.

Hope braced herself as she locked eyes with Josie. Josie, whose tongue had made a seductive sweep between her folds. And then teases her clit. Stretching her hands out to knead and caress the tribrid’s breasts, Josie let out a moan as she licked below while her hands busied with the girlfriend’s nipples till they stood erect. Hope moaned louder as soon as the girlfriend tongue-work sped up at the sensitive core. No longer able to lock eyes with Josie, Hope shut her eyes as the ecstatic pleasure grew in her loins. She was coming. And within seconds she had arched her back and found herself shuddering from Josie’s tongue-induced orgasm.

“Come here.” Hope panted as she stretched her arm out, asking for a snuggle which Josie obliged and moved up to snuggle into Hope’s warm body.

“I love you too, Josie Saltzman.” Hope confessed, looking into those dreamy brown eyes and gently stroking the brunette’s hair.

Satisfied and touched by those words, Josie laid a tender kiss on the girlfriend and asked. “Can we touch each other at the same time next time?”

Hope nodded lightly. “You can do whatever you want to me, babe.”      

\-----

“You told her you love her? On the first day you had sex with each other? A day after she calls you her girlfriend?” Lizzie is surprised at her sister’s revelation.

“What’s wrong with that?” Josie asks.

“It’s a fuckin death sentence, sis!” Lizzie reveals. “You are committing to a relationship too fast. You’re a romantic so you won’t feel it but Hope will soon freak out.”

“Hope said it back to me. You’re over-reacting.” Josie states.

“She’s probably overwhelmed by the sex! Jos, I’m telling you! This happens all the time. There was this guy I dated who kept saying the L word to me when we have sex. Freaked me out and when I broke up with him, he’s like, cool, it was fun.”

“When was this? How did I not know about this?”

“It was a 4-day fling when we were holidaying in Europe. Because it was a fling, I obviously didn’t bother telling you.”

“I was with you the whole time in Europe. How is it I did not realize you had a fling?”

“Obviously, I have better sneaking skills than you, dear sister. I sneaked out when mom and you were asleep.”

“Anyway, I know what I have with Hope is real. I mean, it’s weird that we’re moving this fast but I just know.” Josie is just so sure.

“As real as what you had with Penelope?” Lizzie challenges.

“It’s different! Penelope’s satan incarnate and Hope’s..”

“The Great Evil’s daughter.” Lizzie finishes the sentence.

“Why are you doubting my relationship with Hope? I thought you’ve finally actually like this one person that I’m dating.”

“I like Hope and I think she’s the best out of all of those you have dated so far. But I didn’t expect you say the L-word to her this soon! Look, I just don’t want you to get hurt, ok?” Lizzie gives her sister a hug.

“She loves me, Lizzie. And she won’t hurt me. Besides, I think she’s planning something romantic now..” Josie shrugs.

“What do you mean?”

“My girlfriend wants to chase me, like court me. Told me not to go to her and let her come to me.”

“I’m still not getting this.” Lizzie shakes her head. “How is that romantic? Wait! It sounds like Hope is getting the commitment jitters already!”

“She’s not! Stop saying that!”

“Look! She probably told you not to find her cause’ she’s feeling trapped already. Like she needs her space?”

“Lizzie, if Hope doesn’t knock on my door now, it’s because she’s busy with her hybrid training, ok?”

“Tell me how is that chasing you then?” Lizzie folds her arms, still confident she is right.

Josie sighs out loud. To be honest, she’s trying to play the understanding, supportive girlfriend to the Alpha tribrid and if Hope needs her space, Josie will give her. But when Hope specifically told her she wants to chase Josie, she made it sound like she was planning something romantic. So, it is true Josie was kind of doing most of the chasing, like literal chasing in the beginning of their courtship and Hope wants to pay back which honestly, Josie doesn’t care. She just wants them to enjoy each other’s company naturally. And it does not help that her sister is worried about how she is bull-dozing her relationship with Hope with her early confessions of love.

\-----

Lizzie is both right and wrong. She’s wrong about Hope’s commitment issues because Hope seems more committed to Josie than Lizzie had expected. But Lizzie may be right about Hope’s lack of chase.  

It has been several days and Hope has been busy that she had not planned any romantic surprise for Josie yet. It is most likely due to four new hybrids arriving in Mystic Falls lately. Amber’s tracking device helped again and Hope’s little hybrid army, if including the tribrid herself, has reached the total number of 10. Probably Hope’s way of chasing Josie is just a phone text. It would be texts like “I’m heading for training, come with?” or something as cliché as “Can I have my girlfriend for breakfast, lunch and dinner and everything in between?”

And these requests would be a daily thing. Josie would always say yes and be by Hope’s side most of the time. They are always together. When Hope is training her hybrids, Josie’s there. When Hope have meal breaks, Josie’s there. When Hope goes to bed, Josie’s there. And Josie probably has forgotten about Hope’s promise to chase her. She is just happy that Hope wants her ALL the time. But Lizzie is playing the devil’s advocate and pressing Josie to say NO for once. Just to give the tribrid the chance to actually realize her sister is not always available and to actually CHASE the girl for real. Josie does not like the idea but Lizzie has decided to intervene one day when the tribrid just texted asking Josie to meet her for breakfast.

 _“Sorry, I’m not free today, Hope.”_ Lizzie has used Josie’s phone to text back.

It worked because Hope is surprised at that text reply. Instead of replying, Hope has marched over to the twins’ room and knock on the door anxiously.

“Is Jo ok?” Hope asks anxiously when Lizzie opens the door.

“You could just ask her that with a text, Hope.” Lizzie can’t believe this.

“Babe, I’m fine.” Josie calls out from her room.

Hope slips past Lizzie into the room, ignoring Lizzie’s roll of eyes. “Why did you say you aren’t free to meet me?”

“It was Lizzie who texted you…” Josie gestures at her sister.

“Whatever happen to your promise of chasing my sister, Hope? You can’t expect her to always be available whenever you call for her.” Lizzie quickly chides.

It dawns on Hope and the tribrid does feel guilty about that. The older girl apologizes to the sisters. “I’m sorry. I-I have been busy.”

“It’s fine.” Josie responds with a smile.

“It’s not fine!” Lizzie disagrees as she pushes Hope towards the door and advises the tribrid. “You go and plan something nice for my sister or just give her a day off from you.”

Hope and Josie exchange sad looks and mouths “Love you” to each other before Lizzie closes the door between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Hosie fluff and will finally dive into the answers to Josie's mud pain next.


	13. The Prophecy

_My dear Josette,_

_I would like to cordially invite you to a lunch picnic at the dock by the lake this Sunday. It would be of great pleasure and honour if you accept my invitation._

_Love always, Your Hope_.

Josie laughs out loud upon reading the card written in beautiful cursive, sent via magic post appearing in front of her instead of the usual Hope texts. Josie can’t believe her busy alpha girlfriend actually took Lizzie’s advice?! But Josie does like Hope’s first attempt of the romantic chase. Hope probably got some formal writing skills from her thousand-year-old family. Josie smiles with glee as she takes out a piece of paper and pen to accept the lunch invitation.

Hope is punctual on Sunday when she arrives to pick Josie up. The two girls check each other out in their lovely sun dresses and are delighted with what they see. Josie pretty in pink and Hope gorgeous in sky blue. The picnic goes well. The girls eat, chat, laugh, kiss, basically enjoying each other’s company in a romantic enough setting by the lake.

“I’m sorry for being such a busy alpha lately.” Hope apologizes again.

“I’m not complaining since I have been by your side through the busy times, Hope. I understand.”

“Well, aside from me being the needy girlfriend…” Hope adds. “There’s another reason I wanted you at my trainings, Jo.”

“Is it to train me as well?” Josie remembers occasionally participating in some sparring sessions with Hope and her pack.

“Not only that, I needed you to bond well with my hybrids.” Hope tells the girlfriend. “I have been training them not to attack innocents in wolf form. Having you around them, letting them familiarize with your scent and building that bond with them is part of the training. You are the first person I want them to protect and not attack. Sire-commanding them in human form to protect you isn’t enough. They need to know that when they are in wolf form.”

“How do you plan on making sure they do that? Can you sire command them when they are in wolf form?”

“When they are in wolf form, they may be able to obey my instructions but they cannot be sire-commanded to control their predator tendencies permanently. I have trained them to control not to attack an innocent by quickly shifting back to human form but…”

“But you want them to be able to do that in wolf form, without the need to shift back into human form.” Josie guesses.

Hope nods. “I can actually do that too but so far I have only tried it successfully with my Aunt Freya. Jo, I wanna try it with you. But I’m worried it won’t work and I may attack you.”

“Hope, I wanna try it too. Don’t worry, if you bite me, you can cure me again with your blood.” Josie accepts the challenge readily.

“I know you are brave, Jo but I still would prefer if you cast a protection spell first.” Hope suggests as she holds the siphon’s hands, letting her siphon her magic first.

Josie shakes her head. “Somehow I’m confident I’m not gonna need the spell.”

Hope smiles and kisses her girlfriend before she announces. “Anyway, I’m gonna try it now.”

Josie nods. Hope stands up and pulls her sun dress off herself. She swiftly removes her underwear as well. Josie takes in the sight of her sexy bare-bodied girlfriend again.

“Turn around, Jo.” Hope advises.

“Why? I have seen you naked so many times.” Josie protests.

Hope chuckles. “I don’t want you to see me turn. It’s a terrifying sight. Bones breaking and all.”

“I wanna see, Hope.” Josie insists stubbornly. “I love you. And I can take it.”

“Fine.” The tribrid shrugs and takes a few steps away and then kneels down on all fours.

Josie watches as Hope eyes turn yellow, then the bones crackling starts. It is all fast, the bones re-constructing and the fur and claws growing out of her girlfriend, eventually transforming into a beautiful white wolf. It was not at all a terrifying sight to Josie. It was mesmerizing!

The white wolf lets out a soft growl as it stares at the human witch a few feet away. Josie readies her hand, raised for a potential protection spell. But the hand slowly stretches out instead, towards the wolf.

“It’s me.” Josie whispers to Hope. “It’s just me.”

The wolf seems to calm down, eyes tender now. Hope takes a few slow steps towards Josie who is on her knees. The wolf reaches and sniffs Josie’s out-stretched hand, nuzzling the palm and taking in the familiar scent. Josie gasps in relief and joy at the first contact with wolf Hope. Her fingers feeling the light white fur as Hope moves closer, finally nestling into the warmth of the witch’s embrace.

“We’re gonna be fine, Hope.” Josie assures as she strokes the tender fur of the wolf she loves.

 ------

 “Get up, Raf!!”

Raf hears the new boxing coach, Joshua the hybrid shouting at him. He struggles a little bit to get up. The ring in the old mill has since become his favourite place to go to these days. He loves training and hanging out with this new group of friends. Hope’s hybrids. Some of them guided him during the recent full moon. They also shared stories about how comfortable they are with their hybrid forms compared to their previous werewolf forms, mostly the freedom to shift and their enhanced powers. He particularly likes Joshua and his wife, Clare who treat him like a son.

“He’s up but not for long!” Gerald announces as he faces his werewolf challenger who is now ready for more kick-boxing challenges.

Hope enjoys watching Raf train with her hybrids as much as the werewolf enjoys his time with her pack now. His adjustment to human engagement has also improved which is good news. But she has been avoiding his request to have her turn him. She keeps telling him it was a bad idea.

“Why can’t you turn him, Hope?” Amber asks her alpha as they sit at the bench in the corner watching the boys train. “He’s a strong one and he will be a great asset to us.”

“I’m just not comfortable with it. I told him when I was 15, I once dealt blood and turned a boy in school and he met with a horrible death. Ever since then, the idea just irks me to turn any werewolf myself. Since my dad did the job for me years ago and I suspect he turned at least 50 of you, I think that’s good enough for my war.” Hope reveals.

“Hope, I know the nine of us here were turned because we willingly took what your father offered us. But have you ever wondered if your father would had turned some forcefully? That they may have broken the sire bond themselves completely?” Amber wonders aloud.

“I don’t doubt that, Am. But I will get what I can.”

“Being a hybrid will help Raf with his anger issues though. You know that.” Amber tries again.

“Wait! Why are you helping Raf so much? Are you into him?” Hope playfully nudges the hybrid.

“What? No.” Amber laughs. “I have my eye on a cute witch. And don’t worry, it’s not Josie.”

“I know.” Weeks ago, Hope had already sire-commanded all her hybrids that she claims Josie Saltzman and they are to protect her like they protect the pack.

“Well, well, speak of the devil.” Amber nudges Hope now as she spots the brunette siphon witch approaching them now.

“Hi Amber.” Josie greets the hybrid with a friendly smile.

“Hi Bruja JoJo.” Amber greets with a cheeky wink.

“Stop! You can call me Josie, Josette, Jo, Jos whatever but not Jojo.” Josie warns Amber. “Just please don’t remind me of my ex-girlfriend.”

Amber frowns and glances at Hope who has to ask Josie curiously. “Do you still think about the ex?’

“No.. I just don’t like to be reminded of her.” Josie is slightly taken aback by Hope’s question.

“Amber, don’t call Josie Jojo ever again.” Hope tells her hybrid firmly.

Amber nods, obeying her sire. “Maybe I should remind her of you then. Bye Jo!” The Asian-Latina hybrid then leaves to join the guys in the training ring.

“Hope, you don’t always have to sire-command them.” Josie tells the tribrid.

“I was helping you.”

“You were jealous.”   

“So what if I was. I don’t like the fact that Penelope still leaves a scar in your heart.”

“It’s nothing. Amber just kinda looks and acts like her and it’s just a little annoying.”

Josie then pulls Hope to stand up from the bench. Still holding Hope’s hands, she leans her forehead against Hope’s, comforting her girlfriend. “And there’s no scar in my heart. It has been well maintained by a beautiful tribrid.”

Hope eventually smiles and plants a soft kiss on Josie’s lips.

“C’mon, I came to get you since you have not been answering your texts and calls.” Josie announces as she pulls Hope’ hand to leave the old mill.

“What calls?” Hope checks her phone to find several missed calls and texts from Josie and her Aunt Freya.

“Yeah, your Aunt Freya had to call me to get to you. We have a skype date with her now. Seems like she has some important news to tell us both.” Josie informs as they walk hand in hand back to the school. 

\-----

“Please tell me you have some good news on how I can summon the rest of my hybrids.” Hope asks her aunt as soon as Freya greeted the tribrid and her siphon girlfriend from Hope’s laptop screen.

“Well, that depends. Have you been meditating like I ask you to?” Freya asks.

Hope and Josie look at each other guiltily. Hope is supposed to meditate every night before she goes to bed. She probably missed a few days due to having fallen asleep mostly after some steamy sex. Josie feels guilty as well since she did promise Freya, that she would remind Hope to meditate too.

“It’s my fault. I forgot to remind her sometimes.” Josie apologizes quickly to Freya.

But Freya just smirks. She obviously knows why Hope missed her meditation at times. Hormonal teenagers. Some things that she cannot control.

“Anyway, the summoning spell is something only you can do and gaining back that spell power is on you only, Hope. Now the reason for my call is about some very interesting and important news.”  Freya announces.

“Is it about Josie’s mud pain?” Hope asks anxiously.

Freya nods. “Yes, and your blood and telepathy links with Josie. All these are part of a prophecy.”

“A prophecy?!” Hope and Josie ask at the same time.

“Yes, some witches do get unusual foresights and premonitions and write them down. This one is written by an ancestor Bennett witch. Listen, before I go into the prophecy part, I wanna let you know that we found out why Josie’s injury recurs. The mud bullet isn’t like any normal bullet because it is made for a slow sufferable death. Fortunately for Josie, Hope’s blood can cure the recurring pains but not all of the mud injury. The prophecy does clue us in on the only way to remove it completely. When Vincent and I researched about Malivore and its mud, it led us to the witch’s grimoires. As we translated her notes on Malivore, we found that she prophesized about an epic bonded love that came out of an incident with the Malivore mud.” Freya looks down to read from her notebook.

“Their lives bound by incident of crossings - Sorry I hope my translation makes sense - between the mud of Malivore and the blood of three that weakens him. Ok, I’m gonna guess crossings refers to the part where Josie got shot with mud bullet and taking Hope’s blood later or when Hope took the other bullet for Josie?”

The older Mikaelson witch pauses to see her niece and the siphon’s reaction but the two girls are just staring open-mouthed at Freya waiting for her to continue. So, Freya continues.

“Anyway, let me read the prophecy and you’ll find the sequence of events quite accurately forecasted. This witch uses very ancient Latin codes which I tried my best to decipher.” Freya looks down at her scribbled notes again. Then she reads.

_Upon taking the mud of Malivore,_

_One will suffer the pain of the mud._

_One will take away the pain but not the mud._

_One will sacrifice._

_One will forget but dreams of one’s memories._

_One will die and resurrect._

_One will remember._

_They will connect like lightning. Bonded by blood and mud._

_They will create a telepathic link through their first act of love._

“First act of love? But, we could already mind-talk before we had se…” Josie blurts and stops herself.

“Honey, an act of love can be from just a kiss.” Freya highlights.

“Oh.” The two girls smile sheepishly upon realization that their first kiss was already a real act of love.

“Wait! So, where is the part to permanently stop Josie’s pain?” Hope remembers that Josie’s recent pain attack came again a week ago when she was asleep in her arms in the middle of the night.

“I’m not done reading, Hope. I will get there.” Freya tells the niece as she reads on.

_One will take the mud in full_

_One will beg to take the mud and pain away_

_One will end all mud and pain completely with death by own hands_

_Death ends bloodlines_

“It ends here for now. She probably has another journal which we didn’t find.” Freya can see the two girls still trying to absorb the information.

“So, one of our deaths is the answer to end Josie’s pain?” Hope wonders out loud. “And we have to figure out who’s who.”

“I think it’s pretty obvious death refers to me since you died already.” Josie adds her input.

“No, I still can die like any vampire. Jo, you need to drink my blood on a daily basis. So, if death comes for you, you will still come back alive.” Hope advises.

“Girls, let’s try not to think about who’s who and which end you will meet, ok. The thing with prophecies is whatever you do will end with what was prophesized.” Freya adds. “My most important advice to you and Josie is to just let nature take its course. No use trying to force or change anything.”

A loud knock on Hope’s door causes the two girls to jolt, taking their attention away from their conversation with Freya momentarily.

“Who is it?” Hope asks.

“Hope, it’s me. At least I knocked this time. Is Josie in there? Is she dressed?” Lizzie asks through the door.

“What is it, Lizzie?” Josie asks, still refusing to open the door.

“Family Dinner, Josie! Mom just got back, remember?” Lizzie reminds.

“Right!” Josie remembers now as she turns to the laptop. “Sorry, Aunt Freya. I gotta go.”

“Go ahead, Josie. There’s not much more to share for now.” Freya waves goodbye at the brunette.

Josie and Hope share a quick kiss before Josie leaves the room.

“So, how’re you feeling about this?” Freya asks her niece after Josie had left.

“It’s a lot to take in but I now know why things were naturally this fast and deep with Jo. Connect like lightning and bonded by blood and mud? I haven’t even turned her and she’s bonded to me in ways I never imagined. I mean, I know I’d love her regardless of all this… but to think we have to go through all these prophesized death events?” Hope admits.

“Which was why I was worried about telling you girls at first but as a fellow witch, I would want to know these things too if it involves me.”

“Well, I’m glad you did, Aunt Freya. Or else we’ll keep on searching for answers.”

After Hope and Freya finally end their video call, Freya flips her notes to her last page. There are more of the prophecy which she has decided not to tell the girls yet. It is obvious the prophecy dates to more than half a decade later. Knowing too much of a far future may not be a good idea for the girls.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the lovely comments again. I plan to end this story by chapter 20 or less.


	14. A Rather Awkward Dinner

Landon is writing a letter to his brother. He is happy that Raf is adjusting well back in Salvatore School. He is happy his brother is getting along well with his new friends. Hope’s hybrids who manage to help Raf control his werewolf tendencies. Landon finds that there is no need for him to take care of his brother or give him that medicine that Hope offered anymore.  But that is not the only reason Landon feels the need to write this farewell letter. Hope and Josie. Though the two girls try not to be too affectionate with each other when he is around, he still would catch them stealing kisses and glowing with happiness whenever they are together. He admits. It hurts. Perhaps it was a good idea for Hope not to regain his memories of their past relationship. It would probably hurt more.

Choosing to leave Mystic Falls is a decision he made after remembering a conversation he had with Penelope Park who mentioned he had a mother. Details of the conversation was weirdly vague but he just has a strange feeling that his mother is alive somewhere. 

After writing and sealing the letter to Raf, Landon takes out another piece of paper to write another letter.

_Dear Josie, …._

Landon writes but he cannot continue. In his head, it is all anger and hurt that he cannot bear to put it in writing. How do you write to the ex who broke up with you and has now moved on to date your supposed other ex-girlfriend? Even though it did not sound like Josie cheated on him with Hope, it still stings like it. She did break up with him for one reason – Hope. He may have been avoiding Josie ever since they had their official break-up talk, but he hated how he had not been able to let out the hurt feelings she has caused him. While writing this letter, he is tempted to do that. Yet he can’t. He’s frustrated because Josie is a genuinely nice girl. She filled his lonely empty life with meaningful company back then and sometimes he hates that he misses her singing voice. He doesn’t want to hate Josie.  Perhaps before he leaves, he should at least have one decent conversation with her.

Josie is walking to the Saltzman’s dining room when she spots Landon a few feet away. She stops to face him. He crooks a slight smile at her and Josie draws a friendly smile at him. He walks over to her, noticing how lovely she looks in a nice red floral dress.

“Hi. I just…” Landon greets Josie but is surprised by the sudden appearance of the girl’s mother.

“Hey Landon!” Caroline appears at his side. “Josie should have told me she brought the boyfriend too!”

“I…” Josie tries to explain but Caroline has nicely led Landon into the dining room.

“Sorry, Ma’am. I was just here to talk to Josie. I am not aware about dinner.” Landon explains.

“It’s fine. I guess my daughter likes surprises.” Caroline goes to set up another set of cutleries for the additional guest.

“Mom, I didn’t invite Landon.” Josie states.

“Well, too late. I already invited him now.” Caroline tells her daughter. “Sit down, Landon.” 

Landon looks at Josie who just lightly shrugs.

“I really don’t want to intrude since it’s a family private dinner. I should go. I can talk to Josie later.” Landon adds.

“It’s just an hour of hanging out with us. C’mon, I wanna catch up not just from my daughters but you as well.” Caroline insists as she motions him to sit down. “Then you can talk to Josie all you want.” 

When Caroline moves to the kitchen, Josie who feels that Landon could at least enjoy a good meal decides it would not be a bad idea. “You can stay for dinner, Landon. My mom cooks a rather good meal. Then we can talk after?”

“If you insist, then...” Landon sighs as he sits down.

“I’m just glad you’re talking to me again.” Josie smiles as she takes a seat opposite him.

“What the fuck is he doing here?” Lizzie who is bringing food from the kitchen, asks her sister.

“Mom invited him.” Josie reports.

“I told you. You should have just told mom about Hope!” Lizzie whispers to Josie as she takes a seat next to her sister.

“When she doesn’t remember Hope? I’ll tell her later when she’s more settled.” Josie whispers back.

Josie looks back at Landon and apologizes. “Sorry..”

“No offence taken even though I heard your loud whispers.” Landon admits.

Caroline comes in with the last dinner dish and announces. “We’ll start dinner without your dad since he will be running late. Nothing new there.”

“So, Landon..” Caroline starts the small talk immediately as she serves dinner. “Have you written any new songs with Josie?”

“Nah, she’s been busy.” Landon tells the truth.

“Busy with what?” Caroline looks at her brunette daughter.

“I..ah..” Josie tries to think of something.

“With her new girlfriend.” Lizzie helps.

Caroline is caught by surprise. “WHAT?!”

“LIZZIE!” Josie chides her sister.

“I can’t bear the awkward tension here!” Lizzie adds. “For once, I actually feel bad for Landon, having to sit here and pretend he is still dating you.”

“Thank you, Lizzie.” Landon mutters, surprised that there is a day he is actually thanking her.

“Why don’t you girls even update me anymore?” Caroline complains.

“Because it’s complicated. It’s better for Hope to retrieve your memories and then you’ll understand.” Josie suggests.

“Hope?” Caroline asks.

“Yup, as long as you’re not Landon Kirby, you’ll get the special Hope tele treatment to get your memories back.” Landon highlights.

“Ok, you’re all confusing me now!” Caroline waves her hands in confusion. “Let me ask the questions now. Is this Hope the tribrid you went searching for in New Orleans and who can help us with her blood?”

“Yes.” Josie nods.

“Is she your new girlfriend?”

“Yes.” Josie nods again.

“Ok, good, I’m getting there.” Caroline a little pleased with herself but still confused. “So what is this memory loss and retrieval thing about Hope? What’s her full name?”

“Her name is Hope Mikaelson.” Josie adds. “She jumped into Malivore and we lost all memories of her. So far, she had used telepathy to help Dad, Lizzie and me retrieve our memories of her…”

“Wait… Mikaelson?” Caroline looks at Josie shocked. “You’re dating a Mikaelson?!”

“You should really get Hope to tele her memories back already. She’s really over-reacting over nothing.” Lizzie mutters to Josie.

“Mom! You don’t know her because you lost all memories of her!” Josie sighs, burying her face in her hands.

“But she’s a Mikaelson! They are like a thousand years old!” Caroline tries to recall how many siblings Klaus had. She knows he had like a ton of siblings.

“She’s 18! She has been a student in Salvatore for the past ten years. Mom, she’s Klaus Mikaelson’s daughter!” Josie informs.

“Klaus had a daughter? With who?” Caroline’s mind starts to wonder far.

“Mom..” Lizzie squeezes her mother’s hand. “Don’t worry, you’ve only been a surrogate mom once and had us. Hope’s mother is Hayley Marshall.”

“I know Hayley Marshall…” Caroline remembers. Then she looks at her daughters sternly. “For the love of god, can you get Hope to regain my memories already! I hate looking like a demented old woman now!”

“I said the same thing too!” Landon exclaims as he raises his hands up, surprising everyone on the table.

“Then again, I don’t think I want my memories back.” Landon stands up. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, thank you for the dinner but I think I have stayed longer than I should. I should really go.”

Landon excuses himself politely and steps out of the dining room. He walks swiftly along the hallway, looking for the nearest exit.

“Landon!” Josie chases after the ex-boyfriend who has stepped out into the school yard.

“Josie.” Landon turns around to face her. “Look, I actually came to tell you I’m leaving.”

“What?” Josie is surprised. “Why?”

Landon shrugs animatedly.

“It’s because of me and Hope, isn’t it?” Josie guesses.

Landon looks down at his feet kicking the dust on the ground, clearly frustrated but refusing to say more.

Josie takes out her necklace with the talisman and walks over to Landon. “Just tell me. I won’t take offense. Just let it out. This will help you. You will feel better..”

Landon looks curiously at the talisman which Josie slips around his neck.

The he feels the strong temptation to let out. “Because It hurts. Ok? It hurts to see you happier than when you were with me. I mean it’s fine you were never in love with me but it hurts to be lonely again. My brother doesn’t need me anymore. And I can’t do this. Be the odd one out and all alone again. Hope can expose my secret for all I care now because I’m leaving here for good. I don’t want my memories back anymore because already I’m hurt about you and I don’t want to be hurt about Hope too! Holy shit!! Did I just let all that out?”

\-------

Hope stirs from her sleep when she feels the familiar arm snaking around her abdomen. She waits for the loving morning kisses from the girl who had likely slipped into her bed last night while she was asleep but there aren’t any morning kisses. All she feels is Josie’s warm calm breath on her nape. Hope knows something is wrong so she turns around to face Josie.

“Dinner didn’t go well last night?” Hope asks the sad-looking girlfriend. “Or, are you still thinking about the prophecy?”

Josie just simply nods.

“We’ll get through it, ok?” Hope pulls Josie in for a comforting cuddle.

“Do you know that before finding you in New Orleans, I had already thought of just killing myself to get rid of the pain? I guessed your blood will turn me into a heretic but I know my parents don’t want me turning heretic.” Josie confesses.

“I wouldn’t doubt it. I know the pain and decisions you’ve had to go through, Jo. But we should take my aunt’s advice and not do anything rash yet, alright?”

Josie nods. “I won’t kill myself anytime soon, Hope. I’m already so used to the pain.”

“I wanna end your pain, believe me, but it has to happen when one of us takes in the mud completely. I still have no idea what that means. Just drink a bit of my blood everyday, ok? I’m here with you and you won’t run out of my blood supply.” Hope encourages as she lays a kiss on Josie’s temple.

“Look, Mom wants to see you. To get her memories back already.” Josie informs, trying to change the subject and not worry about Hope worrying about her.

“Fine. I’ll do it later today. It’s time I officially introduce myself to my girlfriend’s mother.” Hope snorts.

“You should have seen her, she thought I was possibly dating one of your aunts.” Josie chuckles.

“Oh my god!” Hope laughs out loud and shakes her head. “Seriously I still can’t believe my dad and your mom had a thing..”

“Can you believe if they actually really got together? Like what would we be?” Josie wonders wide-eyed.

“Oh, incestuous. Very incestuous step-sisters.” Hope chuckles and the two girls cannot stop laughing.

“Can you believe we are some prophesized epic love when our relationship has so much weird history behind it.” Josie notes. “There’s our parents. Then there’s… Landon.”

“What is it, babe?” Hope asks when she notices Josie looking solemn all of a sudden.

“Did you blackmail Landon that we’ll keep his secret identity as long as he doesn’t get his memories back?” Josie asks the tribrid, though not accusingly.

Hope sighs loudly as she admits. “I did it so he won’t keep his hopes up. I promised him I will get them back once I kill Malivore..”

“He’s hurt, Hope. We were so into our own world we became insensitive to his feelings. I feel horrible!”

“You always feel horrible because you keep putting everyone’s feelings first!”

“No, I don’t! Did you forget how I dump him? Now because of us, he’s leaving so all I can feel is just horrible, ok?”

“What do you mean? He’s leaving the school?”

“Yeah, he said he’s gonna find his mom.”

“On what lead? Last I checked he doesn’t have memories of me who is the only one with the memory link to his mother who also jumped into Malivore. He’s got nothing!”  Hope highlights, getting off the bed now.

“Where are you going?” Josie asks the girlfriend who is getting dressed now.

“To talk to Landon before he leaves. C’mon!” Hope walks out of her room.

Josie hurries along with Hope as they walk to Landon’s room. They find the room kind of empty except for Raf sitting at the edge of Landon’s bed.

“He’s gone?” Josie asks the werewolf.

Raf nods as he sniffles. “It’s my fault. It’s all my fault!”

“Hey, it’s not..” Josie moves over to rub Raf’s back in comfort and Hope joins to sit next to him.

“Did he say anything?” Hope asks Raf.

“Just this letter that says he’s going to look for his mother.” Raf hands out a letter.

“I don’t understand. How is he able to know all this when memories of his mom and me were wiped?” Hope then recalls. “Wait! Penelope! She told Landon that I lied to him about his mother’s existence back then during the Miss Mystic Falls ball. But how does Penelope know about this?”

“Hope! The book of secrets!” Josie announces as it hits her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It'll be a little Landon-centered in the next chapter for the story to move on.


	15. The Book of Secrets

“What book of secrets?” Raf asks when Josie announced it.

“Penelope gave me this book which contains almost everyone’s diary entries so she could have told Landon about his mother after reading someone’s diary entry in there.” Josie explains.

“It had to be my entry.” Hope admits. “Only I know about his mother then.”

“What did you write about his mom, Hope?”

This question was not posed by Raf or Josie. It was Lizzie, who is now standing at the doorway of Landon’s room.

“That he found her but she left him again and jumped into Malivore..” Hope answers.

“Oh no!” Lizzie palms her forehead. “Oh fuck!”

“What happened, Lizzie?” Josie asks her sister.

_\------_

It was almost midnight, hours after he had his talk with Josie following that awkward family dinner. Landon did feel much better after talking to Josie and after much thinking, he decided he was ready. Ready to let go and work on his plan to find his mother. But he needed to make a phone call first. One that could help him on his plan. Taking out his phone, he dialled the number.

“Hello?”

“Ermm.. Hi Penelope?”

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“It’s ermm.. Landon, I got your number from MG. Sorry I don’t know what time it is in Belgium and I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time. But I needed to call you to get some information.” Landon informed his ex’s ex-girlfriend and the only person whom he remembered had told him about his mother. He had no idea how she knew but he needed to know more.

“Oh. Hi Landon. This is weird. My ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend calling me for information? I hope it has nothing to do with what is Josie’s fetish or something.” The witch guessed out loud.

“No..no..nothing to do with Josie. We broke up some time ago...”

“What? Why wasn’t I informed about this? Damn it, my spies aren’t updating me lately…”

“She’s moved on and she’s happy. Look, I’m calling about….”

“Moved on? With who?” Penelope interrupted as her curiosity took over.

“Oh…err…with Hope.”

“Hope? Who’s that?”

“Right, your memories of Hope were probably erased as well. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Listen I really need to know how much you know…”

“No, you listen, Landon. I’m not gonna give you any information unless you answer my questions first. Now, who the fuck is Hope?” Penelope demanded.

“Sigh..” Landon sighed. “Her name’s Hope Mikaelson. Apparently, she’s my ex whom I can’t remember much since my memories of her got erased as well…”

“She’s your ex too?! What is she? A witch? A vamp? Werewolf?”

“All three. A tribrid.”

“What the fuck?!”

“Ok, now can I get to ask my questions?” Landon tried again.

“No! You mean I know her but I don’t remember her due to some memory erase? Explain this.” Penelope was still not done with her questions.

“Hope jumped into Malivore which caused the erase of her existence. She came back and then regained Josie and her family’s memories of her so far. And yeah, heard she’s been in Salvatore school for the past ten years. That’s all I know.”

“She’s your ex and that’s all you know?”

“She didn’t regain my memories since she thinks it’ll do me more harm than good..”

“Hmmm, let me see, say I’m your ex, and then you dated this other girl, and then I started dating your girl? Would I want to regain your memories?”

“Great! Thanks for the reminder.”

Penelope started to feel bad for the guy and finally relented. “Alright…what is it you wanted to ask me?”

“It’s about my mother. I remember we talked a bit about her some time back but I somehow can’t remember a lot about our conversation, aside from you saying that my mother was in Kansas or something?” Landon asked.

“Yeah, I remember that and honestly I don’t know how that conversation came about. But I’m guessing I probably knew that information from someone’s diary entries which was recorded in a book I gave Josie.” Penelope admitted.

“A book? It’s with Josie?”

“Yeah, you can ask her for it if it helps to get you more information about your mom. But it’s weird I really cannot remember whose diary entries it was from.” Penelope added.

“Could it be Hope’s entries since you can’t remember?” Landon tried to connect the missing dots.

“Right.. maybe that’s why.” Penelope could not help but agree.

“Alright, thank you Penelope. You’ve been helpful. I think I better go now.” Landon thanked the witch as he ended the call.

After hanging up the phone with Landon, Penelope decided to call a friend from her old entourage at Salvatore School.

“Jess, why is there news that I’m not aware of?” Penelope asked the witch.

“What news, Pen?” Jess asked, acting ignorant.

“Josie’s new girlfriend?!”

“C’mon, Pen. You don’t need to know such news about the ex anymore. She’s moved on, and you are doing fine in your new school, right?”

“I told you guys to update me no matter what. You told me about her and Landon so why is it so hard to tell me about this new girl?”

Jess sighed. “Cause’ we don’t wanna break your heart, Pen.”

“Why? What’s different? Is this Hope hot as hell?”

“Hope is….well, everything.” 

“Cause’ she’s a tribrid? What kind of freak is that?”

“A fuckin powerful freak, Pen!! The werewolves, vamps and witches, not to mention her own army of hybrids basically worships her like she’s the God who bears all powers, which she is actually. No one dares to fight or offend her. And, it doesn’t help that she’s also pretty.” Jess reported.

“Tell me how she treats Josie.”

“Pen, they are inseparable. Like totally in love and adorable. Sorry...”

“Bullshit! That tribrid bitch must have gotten my Jojo into some Stockholm syndrome hold!”

“Actually, it was Josie who went after her. Heard she lied to her parents and went on some secret mission alone to find Hope and came back with her. Next thing we know, Landon’s ass was dumped and Hope’s her new girl.”

Penelope shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t believe any of this shit. That does not sound one bit like my Jojo. She must have been spellbound, by some black magic shit! I need find out more about the tribrid.”

“You do not want to mess with Hope Mikaelson, Pen.” Her friend, Jess warned. “Hope announced her claim on Josie. When an Alpha who’s a powerful tribrid announces her claim, you do not want to take a step anywhere near her girl.”

“Claim?! The fuck! Josie is not a prize!” Penelope exclaimed.

\------

After the conversation with Penelope, Landon decided to go to the twins’ room and see if he could seek Josie’s permission to loan him the book. Or he could just ask Hope directly about his mother? Would she know his mother? But he wasn’t so sure if she would spill so he decided on the former option. He knew Josie would be willing to help him, especially after the friendly talk they had earlier after dinner. Since Hope refused to regain his memories, was it possible that anything about his mother would be bad news? If his father was Malivore, what evil being would his mother be? The best way was to get that book and find out more.

As Landon approached Josie’s room, he knocked on the door. It was only after knocking that he realized it was past midnight and the twins could be asleep by then. Shit! He scolded himself but the door had swung open.  

“What.. what are you doing here?” A frowning Lizzie greeted Landon.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you. Is Josie in?” Landon had no choice but to ask.

“She’s with Hope. She’s not sleeping here tonight.” Lizzie reported.

“Oh..”

“I thought my sister just spoke to you after the dinner earlier? Is everything ok?” Lizzie was curious and actually concerned.

“It’s all good. I just wanted to ask something of her. Something that could help me in my search for my mother.” Landon revealed.

“Oh? What is it? Perhaps I know what it is?” Lizzie offered.

“It’s ah… a book?” Landon explained. “A book with diary entries? Not Josie’s diary. Penelope gave it to her?”

“That book of secrets!” Lizzie recalled. “Of course, that book would have all kinds of hidden information. It was that book that kinda led us to finding Hope in the first place.”

Landon then watched as Lizzie walked over to a drawer in her room to search. Finally, she pulled out a reddish brown binder book.

“Look, Landon.” Lizzie held up the book as she spoke. “I know I have not been the nicest person to you but I know that everything that had happened lately has not been fair to you though sadly I have to admit that both your ex-girlfriends have been good for each other. I’m just sorry you were once the unfortunate party involved with the both of them. So, I’m gonna be kind to you for once. I’m doing you this favour by lending you this book without asking my sister first.”

“You sure she won’t be mad at you?” Landon checked.

“I’ll explain to her. If it’s for a good cause such as finding your birth mother, I think she’ll want to help as well.” Lizzie held the book out for Landon to take.

“Thank you, Lizzie. And I can’t believe I actually thanked you twice today.” Landon acknowledged as he accepted the book.

“Well, I hope I made a difference then, Landon.” Lizzie shrugged.

As Landon turned to leave, he turned back to tell the blonde. “I really can’t get used to you calling me Landon. You can still call me funny names and I won’t mind actually.”

“Seriously? I can actually come out with nicer names, you know.” Lizzie smiled.

Landon was surprised he even got a friendly Lizzie smile. “I look forward to those new names then. Bye Lizzie.” Landon chuckled lightly as he took his leave.  

Sitting in his room, Landon flipped through the book of secrets and realized it was a book of almost everyone’s diary entries. At first, he felt like he might be intruding. Then he remembered he lost his diary months ago and wondered if his entries were recorded as well. He searched and indeed there were some of his entries.

As Landon read his own entries, he realized he had no memory of most of the entries. Most were written about Hope. He realized he had loved the girl like she was the Love of his life. His love for her was so deep, so happy and filled with utter contentment. He read about the song he wrote for Hope and sang to her which moved Hope to tears. As Landon took in this new discovery, he could not help but to quickly check on Hope’s entries as well.

Hope seems to love him as well.

“I don’t get it..” Landon asked himself, burying his hands in his hair, rubbing roughly, confused. As much as he hated how he was feeling now, he knew all that was in the past. Feelings obviously have changed since they were apart for more than seven months, especially with him totally forgetting Hope and Hope now happily dating Josie. After finally calming his thoughts about Hope, Landon decided to focus back to searching information on his mother.

As he continued to read Hope’s entries, he realized she had been carrying the guilt of keeping the truth about his mother, Seylah, from him. That even after he found his mother, Seylah had decided to erase her existence in his life again by jumping back into Malivore. Why would his mother abandon him a second time? Hope had written that his mother did it as both a selfish and selfless act. His mother did not know how to make up to Landon as a mother so she jumped to erase herself again. But she also jumped to keep Landon safe.

Landon shut the book and placed it into his desk drawer, refusing to read anymore. He was absorbing all of this in confusion and mixed emotions. He soon found himself half sobbing and half laughing uncontrollably. His mother left him, twice! His two girlfriends left him and got together with each other! How fucked up was his life?!

In the midst of trying to control his own emotional outburst, Landon suddenly felt a pull. A strong one. It was similar the one that Josie had once spell-casted to help Raf pull Landon out of the cell in the school and into a party at the old mill. Once again, Landon found himself being dragged swiftly out of the school. It was so fast he was practically flying. Who was pulling him this time? He finally came to a stop to what seemed like the middle of the woods.  

Looking up, he did not find Josie or any familiar witch whom he knew from school. It was a kind-looking older witch probably in her 50s or 60s.

“Who are you?” Landon asked.

“Your fairy godmother, kid. I’m guessing your inner turmoil has finally reached its limit for me to be able to summon you.” She answered.

\-----

“I loaned the book to Landon last night. He wanted to find clues about his mother. Where’s Landon now?” Lizzie asks the gang in Landon’s room anxiously.

“He left!” Raf informs. “I was hanging out with Josh and Clare until late last night. When I came in this morning, I saw this farewell letter from him.”

“If he read the book, he can’t be this stupid to look for his mother in Malivore, right?” Hope notes aloud.

“But, Hope.” Josie adds as a thought dawned on her. “If he’s….meant to be the host body, he may have been drawn to go to Malivore already. Remember how he was drawn to the knife artefact and had to steal it?”

“Wait what host body?!” Lizzie and Raf ask at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok, this story will end at Chapter 20! Enjoy the ride for now!


	16. So, Who Gets to Die?

“You mediated longer than usual today.” Josie notes after Hope slips into bed next to her.

“The fact that I now have to face Malivore earlier than planned? I need my summoning spell to work already.” Hope explains.

After telling Lizzie and Raf the whole truth about Landon’s real identity, they also found out that Landon did not seem to have left willingly. Most of Landon’s stuff was still in the closet, even a packed backpack which they guessed he would have brought with him if he was in search of his mother. They also found the book of secrets lying in his drawer. They then decided to do a locator spell to find him but got no result from it. They suspected that someone might have placed a cloaking spell on him and that someone has to be related to Malivore. In the end, Hope decided to activate her D-day war in 3 days’ time.

“Did you try the summoning spell then?” Josie asks.

Hope nods. “But I don’t think it’s working yet.”

“Hope, are you sure we are ready?”

“Well, we have to save Landon, right? We can’t wait. With my hybrid pack, your parents, my aunts, our super squad and their packs, I think we have to do with what we have now.”

“Do you think us keeping Landon’s real identity from the rest like my parents is a good idea?”

“You’re right. Not everyone needs to know but I think your parents should know. I’ll talk to them tomorrow. I have a plan.” Hope adds as she snuggles comfortably into Josie’s side, preparing to have a good night’s sleep.

\-----

“Oh my!” Caroline stares in awe at the girl in front of her. “You have his eyes! I mean I can see a lot of your mother in you but those eyes are definitely his.”

“ _This is so weird_..” Hope mind-talks to Josie beside her, feeling awkward the way her girlfriend’s mother, her headmistress of 10 years is talking to her like they have just met for the first time. 

“ _Just tele her already then_.” Josie advises as she squeezes Hope’s hand.

As soon as Hope completes her memory recovery telepathy for Caroline, another member of the Saltzman family arrives into the office.

 “Hope, you have a plan ready?” Alaric asks as he walks in, getting into mission mode already.

The tribrid nods. “Yeah, but before that, I need to tell you something.”

 She then tells them all that she knows of Landon’s role as Malivore’s son.

“So you are saying Malivore might have gotten to Landon already and taken over his body?” Alaric guesses.

“It’s likely. That’s our suspicion on why Landon just disappeared, instead of leaving with his stuff.” Hope adds. “Even if Malivore does take over Landon’s body once we get there, I have an idea of how to save Landon.”

Alaric, Caroline and Josie are all ears.

“I know a way to summon Malivore. We will then fight him in a secluded area, with everyone else fighting his army of creatures away from us. By us I mean just Josie and I will be facing Malivore alone.” Hope continues. “I will fight him while Josie siphon Malivore’s soul into me, leaving Landon’s soul and body unharmed. I will fight Malivore internally when he’s in me.”

“What?!!” Josie exclaims. “How am I not aware of this atrocious plan, Hope?”

“It’s the best plan, Jo! The prophecy says one will take the mud completely. And I’m the only one with the three blood that weakens him!” Hope explains.

“No, it says death is the way to remove him completely! You already died once! It could mean real complete death with your heart gone forever. NO! I will not accept this dumb plan!” Josie tells the girlfriend. It is probably the first time Hope has seen Josie scolding her like this. The tribrid is somehow speechless, not daring to argue back at that moment.

“What prophecy are you girls talking?” Alaric asks.

The two girls decide to tell Alaric and Caroline about Freya’s findings as well.

Josie shows her parents a sheet of paper where she memorized and wrote down the prophecy. “I should be the one to take the mud completely. I won’t die for long since I’ll have Hope’s blood in me.”

“But you’ll be a heretic.” Caroline notes aloud as she reads the prophecy.

“Better me a heretic than Hope dying for real.” Josie counters.

“Maybe it means a normal death that can’t kill a vampire, Jo.” Hope suggests.

“I think I agree with Hope. Her blood is made to fight Malivore. Even if she dies, she will live again and she is the only one who’s strong enough to end him.” Alaric votes for Hope.

“No, I am the one with the mud pain. Only my death can completely kill it. Having Malivore in me is the only way to end him and my pain.” Josie insists.

“I hate to admit that my daughter may be right.” Caroline solemnly supports Josie. “From the prophecy written, I’m guessing Josie is the one.”

“She’ll be a vampire, Caroline!” Alaric reminds.

“A good heretic, Ric! I can train my own daughter as a vamp!” Caroline affirms.

 “And what about Lizzie? She’ll want in too. What about the merge?” Alaric adds. “There may be serious consequences from the coven if any of them turn heretic.”

“We’ll deal with that later.” Caroline tells Alaric.

“Look, it will be either me or Josie who will take Malivore in. It will happen as prophesized. We can’t stop it.” Hope reminds everyone. “But we all need to know that once Malivore is in one of us, we may not be able to control our own body and mind. I have had the hollow in me before. I know what’s it like and I know I can fight Malivore in me and end him with my life. But Josie, she may not be able to-”

“Hope, we don’t know that.” Josie shakes her head.

“If Josie is doing the siphoning, she’ll definitely siphon Malivore into herself.” Alaric predicts.

“And there’s nothing wrong with that.” Josie insists.

“Unless we let Lizzie siphon it.” Hope suggests.

“No, Lizzie will choose to siphon Malivore into you! I know it.” Josie disagrees.

But everyone else agrees with Hope. That Lizzie will siphon and she will decide their fate.

\------

Hope has briefed her expanded super squad on how she can find Malivore. During her fight in hell with the mud demon, there was an unspoken agreement that they will meet again in a bigger fight. A war with an army.  They were to build their own armies and when one is ready to fight, they just need to summon the other. All this time, Hope had placed a cloaking spell on herself so that Malivore does not spring a surprise attack on her. But now, Hope has to summon him, to save Landon. All she had to do is draw the symbol of Malivore on the area she wants to fight this war. Then Malivore and his army will be summoned and the war will begin. They have opted to summon the war in a cave near a huge clearing in the woods, far away from the Salvatore school. The gang has been briefed on their roles to fight the army in the clearing in the woods while Hope and the siphon twins will fight Malivore alone in the cave.

It is the most stressful decision Lizzie Saltzman has to make in her life so far. To choose who gets to absorb Malivore and die. But it is still highly possible both Josie and Hope will live, except that Josie kept insisting that Hope will die for real. Her sister has been pleading Lizzie to choose her because she wants to end her mud pain and Malivore once and for all. Lizzie wants to help her sister but she hates the idea of Josie turning heretic without her. Like Alaric, she feels that Hope will end Malivore completely due to her powerful blood, not Josie. Hope was born to fight this demon. She is the loophole to end him. Alaric once warned them that if Josie or Lizzie turns heretic before the merge, they may face serious consequences from the ancestor Gemini coven.

On D-day, the twins and Hope take the car to the woods with Alaric driving and Caroline seated in front. Hope is seated between the twins. The tribrid sees Lizzie looking stressed again, probably debating her final decision. The blonde still has not told anyone her decision to siphon the demon soul to who and everyone has agreed not to push her for an answer. Josie’s role will be to help Hope fight and weaken Malivore while Lizzie concentrates on the siphoning.

“Lizzie, take this.” Hope offers Lizzie a tube of her blood. “Malivore is unpredictably powerful. I have spoken to your parents and they agreed that you should take my blood now in case anything happens to you during the fight.”

Lizzie glances at Josie who seems surprised at Hope and her parents’ decision at first. But Lizzie soon sees her sister nodding at her, agreeing that she should take Hope’s blood too. After getting her sister’s approval, Lizzie takes the tube of blood and drinks it. The ride will take about two hours but in less than an hour and after much stressful thinking, Lizzie has dozed off into a light sleep.

 _“Do you think our love is real? The fact that we are probably only together because I took that bullet and drank your blood?”_ Josie wonders to Hope through her mind.

 _“Where is this coming from?! I don’t care about what caused our bond, ok. I know that I love you and it’s fuckin real.”_ Hope declares through telepathy, looking at Josie with almost mad eyes.

_“I mean, if I didn’t take the bullet for Lizzie and Lizzie took it instead, wouldn’t you and Lizzie…”_

_“Stop! You’re getting ahead of yourself. If you ever doubt our love again..”_ the tribrid warns.

 _“I never doubted my love for you, Hope. Not since I was thirteen..”_ Josie adds.

“ _Then why are you suddenly asking these questions?”_

_“It’s just a passing thought from all that prophecy, Hope. I know you love me. And I’m happy with you. I just have one thing to ask of you just this once and if you love me, you’ll do it for me.”_

_“What is it?”_

_“Let me be hero this time. Not because I want glory but because I just know I’m the one to take the mud in completely and end it.”_

_\------_

When the gang reach the destination, Hope finds her aunts Freya and Keelin already waiting there, having travelled from New Orleans to join the fight. Hope quickly approaches them to hug them. She then asks to speak to Freya in private. Freya agrees and Hope casted a silent screen bubble around them to make sure no one hears them.

“So, Josie insists she’s the prophesized one to take the mud completely. I’m not so sure.” Hope tells her aunt.

“Hope, it doesn’t matter. It will go to the right person to end Malivore with death. I told you that whatever you do, it will happen.” Her aunt advises.

“It says death will end bloodlines.” Hope recalls. “But I have already died and ended any fertility and therefore bloodlines, right? Josie hasn’t. Does that mean it’s Josie who will take Malivore and die this time?”

Freya pauses and considers for some time. “Actually…bloodlines can refer to your vampire bloodlines as well. Your hybrids. It could mean the end of your bloodline with them. That they will no longer be sired to you and might just be back to regular werewolves.”

“Josie doesn’t have a vampire bloodline...”

“Yes, but then again, it could mean her fertility bloodline which will end once she turns vamp. We just can’t be sure which bloodline the prophecy is talking about, Hope.”

“So, now it’s still back to square-one possibility that it’s still either Josie or me taking in Malivore.”

“Just know this, Hope.” Freya tells her niece. “Both you and Josie will not die for real today, you both will live many years into the future.”

Hope stares at her aunt for some time. “You know more about the prophecy that you didn’t tell us, did you, Aunt Freya?”

Freya simply nods. But Hope is not mad at her aunt. She knows her aunt probably has her reasons not to tell her more of the prophecy. Besides, she has so far realized that knowing too much of the prophecy has caused more stress than not knowing.

After speaking to her aunt, Hope walks to Josie and mind-talks to her again.

 _“Jo, Aunt Freya said that whoever takes Malivore in will still live a long life into the future. It’s part of the prophecy that my aunt did not tell us yet.”_ Hope informs.

 _“Really? So can’t we just decide now and let me do it?”_ Josie asks.

_“Why is this so important to you?”_

_“Because you have sacrificed enough, Hope Mikaelson.”_

Hope shakes her head lightly at the rather stubborn girl she can’t stop loving. The tribrid is loss for words and just grabs and kisses the siphon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's war time with the big bad Malivore next!


	17. The War

Watching Josie and Hope talk with their minds is a sight to behold. Freya is in awe of their unspoken chemistry.

“I saw them do that same weird mind communication in the car earlier. If the mud pain in Josie is completely removed, does it mean their telepathic links will end?” Caroline walks up to chat with Freya.

“I’m pretty sure it’ll stay. It came out of their love connection.” Freya looks at the blond vampire. “They are practically soulmates, Caroline.”

Caroline smiles as she watches the two girls resting their foreheads with each other, ready to love, protect, fight and die for each other.

\------

“Lizzie..”

Lizzie turns around to see Josie and Hope walking to her hand-in-hand.

“We just wanna say that whoever you choose to siphon, we will respect your choice.” Hope tells her stressful friend.

“Yeah, and we just wanna let you know that no matter what, we will not die. We just found out that Hope and I are prophesized to live several years into the future.” Josie adds.

“Thanks, guys. This makes my decision making much easier.” Lizzie opens her arms to hug both her dear sister and the friend who is as dear to her like family now.

The trio hug for a long time, exchanging unspoken love and understanding for one another before they go to war.

After briefing everyone on their roles and positions in the cave, Hope proceeds to summon Malivore. Using a chalk, Hope starts to draw the big Malivore symbol on the ground. Then they wait.

“Hope, can I talk to you?”

Hope looks up to see Raf approaching her.

“Sure, Raf.” Hope nods as she walks with the werewolf to a corner to talk.

“There’s something I have to tell you.” Raf looks down at his feet guiltily. “I..ah..I took your blood..”

“You what?”

“I stole one of your blood tubes from Josie’s stash and I drank it just before we arrived here…”

“Raf…”

“Please don’t be mad, Hope. I haven’t died to turn yet. I mean, I feel horrible for not telling you beforehand. If you really mind, then I won’t do it. I won’t let myself die until your blood is out of my system.” Raf promises.

“Come here..” Hope gently pulls the werewolf into a hug. “I’m not gonna stop you anymore. You’re a dear friend and if you trust me as your sire, it would be my honour.”

“Thank you, Hope.” Raf is filled with gratitude as he returns the hug.

“But I don’t advise you to turn now. The transition will take a while and we are in the middle of a war now.” Hope advises.

Raf nods in agreement. 

For almost an hour as they wait, they finally hear something. Hope and her little army walk just outside the cave to check it out. They see a swarm of creatures approaching. Those that Hope fought in Malivore as well as those they fought in this world previously such as the gargoyle and the mummy. There are so many of them, at least a hundred of them against Hope’s small squad of 30. Then a familiar figure walks out prominently into view, heading the army of creatures in kingly strides. Landon…. Or rather Malivore.

“Don’t worry, Hope. We can take them.” Freya assures as she heads to the front to lead the super squad.

“Guys, remember, leave Landon to me.” Hope reminds her squad. “Now go kick some ass!”

Everyone nods to her command. Some of her hybrids starts turning. So do Jed and his werewolves, using the magical rings Freya brought, the one Hope once loaned to Raf to turn at will. Alaric and Caroline stay guarding the entrance of the cave as the super squad charges forward to face the army of creatures, leaving Landon-Malivore untouched as he walks towards Hope in the cave.

“We meet again, tribrid.” Malivore greets with that Landon smile, as he stops and faces Hope, standing just inches apart.

“Can’t wait to kill me again?” Hope asks with a smirk.

“With pleasure. You know, I would expect you to only summon the war when your army is bigger. You’re getting over-confident, tribrid.” Malivore raises a brow.

“Using your son to lure me into an early war? That’s almost cheating, Muddy.” Hope clicks her tongue.

“Good thing he lost everything you meant to him. I’m sure he’s happier as me now.” Malivore brags.

“Thanks for the reminder.” Hope suddenly grabs hold of the mud demon’s head.

The tribrid forces the memories out through telepathy, shouting. “Fight him, Landon!!”

The telepathy distracts Malivore as so many fond memories of Hope and Landon flood his mind. 

“Now, Lizzie.” Hope tells the blonde. “Start working.”

Lizzie starts chanting the siphoning spell as she watches Hope distract the enemy with her telepathy.

 _“Jo, weaken him.”_ Hope instructs Josie through her mind.

 _“Already at it.”_ Josie replies as she wraps her fingers into her palm to cast pain into the demon’s head.

“Grrr…” Malivore groans upon the extreme migraine hitting him and then he pleads with sad, painful eyes at the tribrid whose hands are still clamped around his temples. “Hope?”

“You can fight him, Landon. Don’t let him control you.” Hope advises.

“It hurts.” He replies.

“Let it hurt. Make him weak.”

“I-I can’t..” Landon admits and then with a roar, he grabs Hope by the collar and easily throws her off him.

The tribrid lands hard on other side of the cave. She watches as Josie cast a strong fire spell at Malivore. The mud demon burns but not for long. He’s a phoenix after all. Fire does not kill him. As he charges at Josie, Hope vamp speeds over and in quick succession, snaps his neck.

But it does not work this time. Landon-Malivore just simply turn his head slowly and his neck is back to normal.

“Damn it! He’s more powerful now.” Hope observes. “Especially when he has his army’s strength too.”

“Hope, my spell doesn’t work well if he’s too strong.” Lizzie announces. 

“PATERA!” Josie casts another spell to repel Malivore far away from Hope. His body hits hard against a wall.

“Hope, we just lost two members and obviously still outnumbered out here.” Alaric reports on the battle just outside the cave.

“Who did we lose?” Hope asks quickly.

“Raf and Kaleb. But at least their hearts are still intact.”

“Damn it..” Hope curses at the bad news. Raf and Kaleb are few of her strongest in her super squad but she is not too worried about them since Kaleb’s a vampire who will come back alive and Raf has her blood in him so he will turn hybrid hours later. It is just that they are two men down and they cannot wait for hours for them to get back to fight. She has to come up with a back-up plan now that she may be on the losing end. She needs to find a way to strengthen her army already.  

 _“Jo, can I leave you to fight and distract him while I work on a spell?”_ Hope mind-asks the girlfriend on the offense plan against Malivore.

“On it!” Josie nods in response without hesitation. She casts the pain infliction spell again at Malivore while Hope closes her eyes to work on her summoning spell. The one she has been working on for several months.

“Lizzie, hold my hand. I need your channelling.” Hope asks of the blond witch.

“Josie, need my help?” Caroline asks as she rushes into the cave to check on the girls.

“I got this, mom. Help Hope. She needs channelling.” Josie cast another protection spell around Hope, Lizzie and Caroline as the three hold hands to help the tribrid harness more power.

As Hope continues chanting her summoning spell, Josie finds Malivore gaining his strength back to fight against her pain infliction spell. As soon as he got back on his feet, he reaches out and pulls Josie into a chokehold with his hand. 

“Oh my Josie. How I miss your sweet kisses.” Malivore grunts at the brunette as he pulls Josie so close to his face.

“What the fuck? He’s both Landon and the evil mud.” Lizzie observes aloud.

Hope controls herself from getting distracted from her summoning spell. Anger rises and she wants to run to save Josie but somehow a part of her is telling her that Josie got this. That her girl can fight the demon without her help. And then Hope hears Josie’s thoughts, telling her to trust her.

 _“I got a plan. You need to trust me on this and focus on your spell, Hope.”_ Josie who is struggling against the overwhelming strength of Malivore, telepaths her thoughts to her girl. Hope can only nod in response. 

Next thing, Josie does the unexpected.

The brunette siphon pulls Malivore and kisses him. Landon-Malivore is taken by surprise momentarily but a familiar feeling rises in him and he is responding to that feeling. That feeling of weakness whenever he is kissing Josie. He kisses her back, wanting more of her sweet kisses.

Hope, Lizzie and Caroline watches in astonishment but they can see the red glow between the ex-boyfriend’s and Josie’s mouths. Josie is siphoning him. Hope works on restraining her jealous feels and tightens her hold on both Lizzie and Caroline’s hands.

“She’s siphoning him. It seems to be working. I think Landon is probably weakened by his feelings for Josie.” Caroline whispers to her companions.

Hope can't help but agree with Caroline. “Keep on channelling me. I can feel my spell working.”

“Hope..” Lizzie adds. “I actually planned on siphoning him to you.”

“I guess we’re leaving everything to your sister now, Lizzie. We can’t control what will happen.” Hope advises.

As heart-wrenching it is to watch Josie and Landon make out, Hope can feel her witch power getting stronger and stronger through her internal spell-chanting.

\------

“Oh dearie, you must be the wicked witch.”

Freya turns to see a kind-looking old lady with a wand commenting at her after seeing how the Mikaelson witch had easily broken three creatures’ necks with just a wave of her hand.

“And you must be the fairy godmother.” Freya greets back, recognizing every bit of the fairy tale character. “Sorry to have to fight you, godmother.”

“Oh don’t be sorry.” The fairy god-mother waves her wand and Freya suddenly finds her windpipe choked. The choke so strong she can hardly find her breath. She tries to cast a spell but she is too weak to do so. Her vision starts to blur but she can see something in the distance. Strangers, several of them. These humans are walking closer and there are many of them, like a horde of them.  Then she can see some of them turning into wolves.

Trying to beat the surprisingly powerful fairy god-mother, Freya tries to regain her strength. Then she hears a loud roar and crunch, which results in her feeling released from the choke. She catches her breath and sees the fairy godmother lying dead, bitten by a gorgeous brown wolf. Freya smiles proudly at the wolf. Her reliable wife. Freya looks around her and her smile grows wider as she sees Hope’s newly arrived hybrid army taking down more and more creatures effortlessly.

“Hope’s summoning power is back.” Freya notes.

\-----

“He’s losing it.” Hope can feel her new army arriving and fighting out there. With Malivore’s army weakened, so is his power. She can see that Josie siphoning is working faster as well.

The kiss has long broken as Malivore loses more of his strength. He drops to his knees but Josie is still holding him with his head in her palms, siphoning and taking him away. He stares into those brown eyes staring back at him as they grow darker. Finally, Landon fully awakens but he is overwhelmed with unexplained fatigue and drops to the ground, unconscious.

Josie stands victorious over Landon’s unconscious body. She stares at her hands. She can feel a whole new power inside her. She finally has Malivore in her.

“Jo?” Hope asks after the brunette as she walks carefully towards her girlfriend.

“Hope..” Josie turns to the tribrid with weary eyes and stretches her hand out.

Hope reaches out for the hand and gets pulled into a hug. Josie hugs her girlfriend tight as she confesses. “He’s in me. I can feel him but I can’t… I-I think I’m losing control. Help me….help me kill me now.”

“But I can’t…” Hope replies as she looks up at Josie, remembering the prophecy that one has to kill her own self to end the mud completely.  And that few seconds of hesitation was all it took for Malivore to take over Josie and snap Hope’s neck.

\------

“JOSIE!!” Hope jolts up and realizes she is in her bed in her dorm room. She sees Freya and Keelin moving to her when she woke up.

“Where is she?” Hope asks her aunts anxiously. All she last remembers is Josie snapping her neck.

“She’s in the cell.” Freya reports. “I managed to cast a sleeping spell on her when she tried to escape the cave.” 

Hope quickly tries to get off her bed but is stopped by her aunts.

“Listen Hope. That’s not Josie, ok?” Keelin warns. “Since she woke up, she’s basically Malivore.”

“I can mind-talk with Jo. Maybe I can get to her.” Hope highlights.

“Just be careful.” Freya advises as she watches her niece hurry out of the room and follows suit. “You need to remember that you can’t kill Malivore. He needs to kill himself. We need to find a way for Josie to take control and kill herself.”

“Wait.” Hope stops in her tracks as she faces her aunt. “How long have I been out?”

“About 10 hours?”

“Shit..” Hope observes as she looks at the clock. “We’ve only got less than 2 hours before my blood is no longer in Josie’s system.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so the war is over but Malivore is still not over. Can Josie end him?


	18. I Just Want Her Back

They had put Josie-Malivore in the highest security cell. Not the regular cells with the grills but the cell with the automated lock system door and a fire-rated bullet proof window. Caroline remembers putting the heretic Kai Parker in that cell before where he managed to break out using magic so they had reinforced that cell with stronger magic-proof walls, door and window since then.

“She now has Malivore in her so she has magic in her body and can easily cast any spell without siphoning any other magic object. It’s almost equivalent to a heretic. Earlier she casted a fire spell but the cell is able to withstand it.” Caroline reports when she sees Hope and her aunts arrive in the cell, obviously to visit Josie.

“I’m sorry about all this.. ” Hope apologizes to her girlfriend’s mother.

“It’s not your fault, Hope. Good to have you back.” Caroline advises. “You can talk to her through the window. Just turn on the switch with this remote control and we can hear each other. For now, she can’t hear us. I'll leave you guys to watch her now. "

"Thank you, Caroline. Have a good rest. We'll take over from here." Freya nods to the vampire as she takes her leave.

Hope takes the remote and looks at Josie-Malivore who seems to be seated in meditation position with her legs crossed and her eyes closed. “I can try to talk to her through our thoughts first.”

And Hope tries it. _“Jo, can you hear me? Babe, talk to me.”_

There is no response. Josie-Malivore is still sitting calmly with her eyes closed.

“It’s not working.” Hope shakes her head at her Aunt Freya.

“That means he’s completely in control of her.” Freya observes.

“But when he was in Landon’s body, he seems to be both Landon and himself.” Hope reveals.

“Landon was originally made for him as a host body. I’m guessing he can access to Landon’s memories and feelings. With Josie, it could be different. It’s possible he can’t access her memories but he can take over her mind and body. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t hear you through telepathy.” Freya gives her theory.

“So how was he able to perform spells if he can’t access her memories?” Hope asks.

“He probably learnt some witch tricks from his entourage of witches and fairy godmother?” Freya guesses.

Hope decides to speak to Malivore and uses the remote to enable audibility between the cell and the room where they are standing.

“Hey Muddy!” she calls out to Malivore.

Josie-Malivore flicks open her eyes. “Must you interrupt my meditation? How’s the neck?”

“Never better.” Hope reports. “Listen, can I talk to Josie?”

The mud demon laughs. “You are funny. You’ll have to wake her up then! She pulled me into her body so she’ll have to live with me controlling her forever. I must say I should have made my son a witch. These powers are more fun.”

It’s weird seeing evil Josie laugh and talk. Hope knows that Josie needs to fight to take over control but she may not have been strong enough to do so against the mud devil. This is what Hope was most afraid of from the start.

“How about this? I give you my body. I’m a tribrid, even more powers than just a witch.” Hope offers.

Josie-Malivore walks up to the window, facing Hope closer. “Tempting..”

“Hard to pass on a deal like this eh?” Hope encourages.

“And how do you propose we do that?” Malivore asks.

“Her sister can siphon you over to me.” Hope suggests.

“Hope, you sure about this?” Freya asks her niece.

Hope ignores her aunt. “So I’ll take that you’ll up for it, Muddy? If you're ok, I’ll talk to the sister now.”

Malivore displays that Josie smile widely and nods.

“Hope, but what if he could take over your body and mind completely as well?” Freya warns Hope as they walk to Lizzie’s room.

“I know I can fight him when he’s in me!!” Hope shouts at her aunt. Then she immediately regrets her sudden outburst and apologizes to her aunt. “I’m sorry..”

“It’s fine. You need time to think, sweetie.” Freya tells her niece.

“No, Josie doesn’t have time.” Hope starts to cry. “I just want her back. I just want her back, safe and sound.”

Freya hugs her niece in response. “I know…I know..”

\------

Malivore does not need to wait long it seems. Not long later, he sees the tribrid returning with another blonde. He remembers seeing this blonde in the cave as well.

“So, listen, Muddy. We need you to weaken yourself for the siphoning to work.” Hope advises.

“Seriously?”

“Yes, did you forget how you were siphoned to your current body now?” Hope reminds.

“Fine. So, are you gonna kiss me too?” Josie-Malivore asks, raising an eyebrow.

Hope shakes her head, knowing it is a different case with Landon-Malivore. “If only that would work.”

“Why not? You won’t know until you try it.” Malivore tempts the tribrid with those classic Josie puppy eyes and pouty look.

“I-I..” Hope mutters, feeling a little weak at that Josie look.

“He’s not Josie, Hope.” Freya reminds the tribrid.

“Yeah, even if you kiss those lips of my sister, it won’t be my sister but that perverted demon feeling it.” Lizzie adds.

“I know..” Hope sighs.  

Hope then takes out a tube of blood to show Malivore. “Just drink this as it will weaken you.”

“What’s that?” Malivore asks.

“My blood.” Hope opens a small slot in the cell door and slips the tube into the room.

But Malivore is not taking the tube. The mud demon seems to be deliberating.

“You know what? I need time to think about this.” Malivore tells the tribrid.

“What do you mean? You scared of my blood? We don’t have time for this!” Hope gets impatient.

“Hmm..” Josie-Malivore rubs her chin, guessing. “Why are you rushing for time?”

“What she meant was.. she doesn’t have time to play games with you!” Lizzie helps.

“Well, I have all the time to think about this. Say I drink your blood and it weakens me but you end up killing me and not siphoning me?” Malivore states.   “Think of something else to deal with me, tribrid.” Malivore heads to the bed in the cell and lies down. “While I take a nap.”

“Listen!” Hope demands in anger but soon calms herself down as she pleads. “Look, I love her, ok. That person inside you. And I would do anything for her. Anything including sacrificing my own body. Please, I don’t want her being the one dead inside you. I rather be the one dead inside you. I beg you, please.”

Malivore sits up to look at Hope, noticing how desperate the tribrid looks. It is amazing what love can do to a person. He earlier felt his son’s feelings towards the tribrid and the witch whose body he is in now. But Malivore hates all of it. Fuck love and its complicated feelings.

“Beg on your knees.” Malivore demands of the tribrid, testing her pride and patience.

Hope goes on her knees without a thought. “Please let me be the one to take you in. Let my Josie go.”

Freya watches on as the scene of the prophecy was naturally being played out.  _One will beg to take the mud and pain away._

But the mud demon still prefers to play hard to get. “I’ll think about it. I need a nap now!” Malivore instead lies back down, this time going to sleep for real.

“FUCK!!” Hope swears and slams her fist on the wall in frustration.

Lizzie disable the audio communication features in the cell with the remote and speaks to Hope.

“Hope….” Lizzie squeezes the tribrid’s shoulder. “Perhaps we can trick him into taking a meal which has your blood infused in them?”

“He may not fall for it.” Freya adds. “Let me think of something. I need my grimoires. I’ll come back in a bit.”

As Freya moves towards the door to head out of the room, she is greeted by a surprise visitor. A visitor who blows her sleeping dust into the face of the older Mikaelson witch and puts Freya into an instant sleep. Hope vamp speeds quickly to catch her aunt before she drops onto the ground. The tribrid looks up to see who the perpetrator is.

“Penelope?” Hope surprised at the presence of her girlfriend’s ex.

Penelope gives Hope a full once-over and then asks suspiciously. “Are you… Hope?”

“What the fuck are you doing here, Satan?!” Lizzie greets her sister’s ex in her most friendly way. 

“Looking for Josie, obviously! I heard she’s locked up here! Why?!” Penelope demands when she spots Josie sleeping in the cell. “Did you lock her in there, tribrid?!”

“Maybe we should siphon Malivore into her instead. They are probably made for each other.” Lizzie suggests sarcastically, arms folded.

“Why are you here, Penelope?” Hope asks calmly.

“Because I need to talk to Josie. And I wanted to see for myself what kind of relationship Jojo has gotten herself into.” Penelope walks up to Hope, staring right at the tribrid’s eyes. “Or rather what kind of mess she got herself into.”

Hope keeps her cool staring back at the witch. Of all the time, Penelope had to choose this time to come visit. Hope has to save Josie some way within a limited time and she does not need a battle with the bitchy ex to ensue. But before Hope can respond to the witch, she suddenly hears a voice in her head.

_“Hope! Hope!!”_

It’s Josie. Mind-talking to her.

Hope pushes Penelope aside and runs to the window but all she sees is Josie still sleeping peacefully.

“Jo?!” Hope asks.

 _“I think I can take over the mind when he’s asleep.  Don’t think I should move or else I will wake him up.”_ Josie reports.

“Ok, can you do spells with your mind?” Hope asks.  

Josie takes the advice and tries a spell and a small ball of fire appears and then quickly disappears in Josie’s hand. “ _Sorry, had to quickly diminish the fire so it doesn’t wake him.”_

Penelope watches in amazement at the unique communication between Hope and a sleeping Josie now.

“Wait. How is she talking to Josie?” Penelope asks.

“They have a telepathic link. Something you could never have with my sister.” Lizzie tells the raven-haired girl.

Penelope does not respond to Lizzie’s comment. Instead, she is very curious at Hope and Josie’s silent connection.

 _“Ok, Jo. This spell I’m gonna teach you is a spell I found in my grandma’s grimoires. My aunt Freya has been keeping it away from me but I remember it clearly. It’s basically a suicide spell. It will burst your heart after you chant the spell several times. Can you do it?”_ Hope asks in telepathy.

 _“Yes, Hope. Let me kill this mother-fucker already.”_ Josie replies confidently.

 _“I love you, my fearless warrior. I’ll see you later, ok?”_ Hope then gives the spell to Josie through her mind.

 _“Got it. Love you too.”_ Josie acknowledges back.

“Ok, this silent communication is making me nervous. What are they….” Penelope’s curiosity is killing her.

“SHHHH!” Lizzie hushes Penelope. “Let them work. They know what they’re doing.”

Josie chants the spell silently in her head for about 20 times before she feels a sudden piercing pain in her heart. For a split-second she could feel the demon in her waking up and then… blank.

Hope watches for a few minutes, seeing Josie’s body calm with steady breathing until a sudden jolt of the chest and then the body went still.

“What happened?” Penelope asks anxiously.

“Hope? Did she….?” Lizzie asks Hope knowingly and the tribrid nod in response.

“I taught her the suicide spell.” Hope reveals to Lizzie.

“What?!” Penelope runs to the locked door, banging. “You made her kill herself?! How do you open this fuckin door?!”

Hope nods to Lizzie who uses the remote to open the door. Penelope rushes to Josie. She checks the body for a pulse but found nothing. The witch starts sobbing, mourning her ex’s death. Hope and Lizzie exchanges side-eyes.

“I knew you were bad news for her!” Penelope accuses Hope who can only blink at her.

“Dude, she’s not dead.” Lizzie decides to spare the witch from any unnecessary mourning. “I mean, she’ll turn. She has vampire blood in her. She had to kill the demon inside her and this is the only way.”

Penelope feels slightly relieved but she is still mad. She stands up and faces the blond siphon.

“Listen, Saltzman. What you and the tribrid just did is just as close as sentencing your sister to death. That is, in the laws of the coven. Very soon, you will never see Josie again.” Penelope reveals.

“What are you talking about?” Hope asks.

“This is WHY I’m here! To stop something like this from happening so Josie doesn’t get into trouble with her coven!!” Penelope exclaims.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two more chapters to go!!! Woohoo!  
> Then I can go into retirement mode ;)


	19. Death Breaks Rule

“Back in my school in Belgium, there is this high council of witches meeting held twice a year. Yesterday one was held.” Penelope is speaking to an audience of her former headmaster and headmistress, Alaric and Caroline, her ex-girlfriend’s annoying sister, the tribrid her ex is apparently dating, as well as the aunt of the tribrid, and her wife. Penelope has heard of Freya Mikaelson. She heard Freya was once commissioned to be one of the few prestige witches in the high council of witches but Freya has politely rejected the offer. Only after the whole ordeal that happened in the cell earlier, Penelope realized that she had actually put THE Freya Mikaelson in a sleeping spell. She then did not forget to quickly apologize to the older witch when Freya finally woke up. 

After the suicide death of Josie-Malivore earlier in the cell, Hope had placed her girlfriend’s body in the twins’ bedroom, awaiting her resurrection. Hope and Lizzie had assigned MG to watch over Josie and to give her the blood bag as soon as she wakes up while Hope and Lizzie headed to the library with Penelope to hold this meeting.

“The high council involves the elite leaders of some prominent covens and elder witches. It was a council formed to protect and unite all covens. They make executive decisions and judgments on behalf of all covens. Say a coven needs to deal with someone who broke a rule but is unable to execute any action, the council does it for them. In the case of the gemini coven, even though they are dead but they still have the surviving gemini witches in the living world so technically the coven isn’t entirely dead. The ancestor witches are still kind of ruling the coven until Lizzie or Josie become the ultimate leader. Anyway, the council has the ability to communicate with some ancestor witches and the gemini ancestors had requested for this meeting.” Penelope continues. “A couple of curious friends and I managed to sneak into the chambers nearby and overhear what the meeting was about. We found out that the gemini coven foresaw that one of their future coven leaders, that is a gemini twin witch is going to break a rule very soon. Obviously, I knew they were talking about Lizzie and Josie. It is a serious crime to the coven because it would affect the rules of the merge in six years. They were there to ask of the council to respect their coven rule in placing the right punishment for the witch. They didn’t mention if it was Josie or Lizzie who would break the rule but I just had to warn you guys before it happened. I tried to contact Josie and some of my friends here but I couldn’t get hold of anyone! So, I decided to take the first flight down here.”

“There’s the school phone you can contact if it was that important!” Lizzie highlights.

“I did!” Penelope states.

“We were all busy fighting the war in the woods. We might have missed her calls.” Alaric notes.

“And I had to blatantly watch that tribrid teach Josie how to kill herself! If I knew she was going to do that, I would have stopped it.” Penelope pierces her accusing eyes at Hope again.

“No, you wouldn’t have stopped it. Josie’s death was already prophesized and it is likely the coven is aware of this prophecy and that was why they had requested for the council meeting.” Freya guesses.

“What punishment did they place on Josie, Penelope?” Hope asks the important question.

“Prison world. The one with her uncle. Sentence is forever.” Penelope announces.

Everyone gasps at that horrible piece of news.

“No, no! We need to find a way stop this! I’m not letting my daughter in prison alone with that maniac!” Caroline starts pacing nervously.

“I told you this will happen! These are consequences if one of my daughters turns heretic!” Alaric complains to Caroline.

“I just didn’t think something like this would happen! The coven’s dead!” Caroline wonders aloud.

“If they can put Kai in that world, do you think they won’t do the same to Josie?” Alaric argues.

“Kai was put in that world by Bonnie! The coven only managed to put Kai in the prison world previously when the coven was still alive. They are dead now so I didn’t think they would still have the power to do anything with my daughters!”

“No, I can’t live without my sister! Mom, we have to stop this. We can’t lose Josie!” Lizzie cries out.

“The high council of witches are the world’s most powerful witches and they had already approved the punishment and will see it through. It’s going to be hard to stop this.” Penelope advises.

While everyone is panicking over this, Hope is sitting quietly, absorbing this piece of bad news. She can feel her heart aching. She may just get Josie back and lose her all over again.

Freya must have noticed this and reaches out to hug Hope by her side.

“You knew this will happen, right? From the rest of the prophecy?” Hope asks her aunt Freya.

“There was a part about breaking rules in the prophecy but I couldn’t guess what it was. Now I know.” Freya reveals as she gently rubs the arm of her niece.

“Does it say anything about us being together? Or that we’ll be separated?” Hope has to ask.

“Hope-”

“Wait! No. Stop! Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. I hate knowing too much!” Hope tears up as she buries her face in her hands.

After some time of taking in the news and everyone coming up with all sorts of ideas on how to counter this new situation, Hope has somehow grown numb to think anymore. All she wants to do now is to spend all her precious time with Josie when she wakes up.

Soon enough, Hope hears a dear voice in a distance, from the hallway.

“Hope?” The voice sounding a little weak.

“Jo?” Hope turns to see Josie, the brunette’s mouth slightly smudged with blood, dragging her feet slightly to the library entrance.

As soon as Josie opens the doors and sees Hope, the new heretic smiles widely and throws herself in the direction of the love of her life. Hope moves forward immediately, catching resurrected Josie in her arms. The two kiss longingly, naturally missing each other. 

Finally breaking the kiss to look at her girlfriend, Josie notices tears rolling down the tribrid’s cheeks.

“Did you miss me this much?” Josie chuckles as she wipes the tears on Hope’s cheeks with her thumb.

“More than ever.” Hope admits and kisses Josie again.

Josie melts in the kisses again, ignorant to the people in the library, until she hears that familiar huff.

“What are you doing here?!” Josie looks up to see Penelope who is standing a few feet away rolling her eyes after witnessing the ex and her new girlfriend kiss with no regard for everyone in the library.

“Well, hi there, Jojo!” Penelope greets, crooking a disappointing smile.

“She’s the bearer of bad news apparently.” Lizzie announces as she moves to hug her sister who just came back to life. Her parents joining in the hug after as well.

“Bad news?” Josie asks as she releases the family reunion hug.

“Guys..” Hope stops anyone who tries to break the bad news. “Let’s do that later. She at least deserves some sort of celebration for being the selfless hero first, right?”

Everyone nods but still look sad. Josie notices the gloom in the room but Hope is still smiling at her.

“Josie, listen-“ Penelope tries to speak.

“Penelope!” Hope interrupts the witch with a stern frustrated tone. “Please... I just wanna make her the happiest person right now. Can I at least do that first?!”

Penelope is taken aback by Hope’s rebuttal and that serious stare. So far, the tribrid had not shot back at any of her snide remarks and for a moment, Penelope could not speak. She looks between the two girls, noticing Josie’s hand clasped tightly around Hope’s.

“Penelope..” Josie affirms as she guesses what the bad news bearer had in mind for coming down here. “I don’t know if you are here because you wanna get back with me again or ruin what I have now with Hope but you need to know I’ve moved on. And I love Hope. I’m happy with her.” 

“I-I didn’t come here to break you guys up..” Penelope shakes her head at Josie, though her heart is breaking at Josie finally saying the L word but not back at her.

“Good. Now if you excuse us please.” Josie turns around as she pulls Hope along with her, heading for the exit.

As Josie and Hope walk the hallway hand-in-hand, instinctively heading towards Hope’s room, the two remain quiet. Hope can see Josie’s furrowed brow and she knows her girlfriend is probably out of sorts.

“Alright, talk to me.” Hope probes.

Josie stops in her tracks to face her girlfriend. “Did I go too far? I mean, I would be hurt if an ex said those things I just said to Penelope, right?”

Hope nods slightly in agreement. “But she’s Penelope. She’ll live.”

“I mean I meant what I said about you, Hope. I just feel….”

“Horrible?” Hope helps.

“Bad.” Josie corrects.

“Do you wanna talk to her?”

“Do you mind?”

“My wolf side may be somewhat territorial but it doesn’t mean I won’t let you talk to your ex.” Hope shrugs. “Besides, I trust you.”

“You sure? It won’t take long.” Josie double-checks.

“Go… I wait for you in my room.” Hope encourages and gets a kiss from Josie in return.

“I have no regrets loving you this much.” Josie confesses with a forehead touch. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Jo..” Hope holds on to her girlfriend’s hand, not letting her go just yet. “She may tell you the really bad news...”

“Is it that bad?” Josie asks, concerned.

Hope swallows as she nods. “Just know that, whatever happens, I will never leave your side.”

“And I’ll do the same for you too. If there’s another Malivore pit you plan on jumping in, I’m jumping with you this time.” Josie reaches out to hold both Hope’s hands.

“Alright.” Hope crooks a smile.

“Pinky promise that we’ll never leave each other’s side?” Josie lifts up her pinky finger.

“Pinky promise? Is this a Saltzman twins thing?” Hope chuckles.

“You pinky promise with my sister too?”

“Yeah, back when she made me promise to get you back to being her nice loving sister.”

“Well, I won’t do the pinky promise with you then. Ours will be like a kissy promise.” Josie pulls Hope in to drop a tender kiss on her favourite lips.

As they pull away from the kiss, Josie notices someone looking at them. Hope and her turn to see Landon, looking a little awkward a few feet away.

“I think you should do that ex talk too..” Josie suggests to Hope. “Especially now that his memories are back.”

Hope nods. “Right. See you later, Jo.”

\------

“I ah.. I wanted to thank you. And Josie too..” Landon expresses his thanks as he takes a seat next to Hope on the sofa in the common room. “For saving me. Again.”

“I made a promise, Landon. To Kill Malivore and get your memories back.” Hope reminds.

“Except you got my memories back before killing him. I’m not complaining. But it was the most confusing moment in my life. My brain was a mess.” Landon admits.

“I’m sorry..” Hope apologizes.

“No! I’M sorry! I threw you against a wall!” Landon recalls.

“It’s fine.” Hope assures.

“No, It’s not! Because a part of me really did that.”

“It was Malivore.”

“No, Hope, listen to me.” Landon looks at Hope in all seriousness. “I found out how much I loved you in my journals from that book of secrets and then when the memories really came back, I just had all these emotions choked up and then the anger just took over!”

“Landon…” Hope shakes her head lightly. “I really don’t blame you.”

“Hope, you told me you loved me.” Landon reminds.

“I-I did.” Hope admits. “And then when I came back from Malivore three months later and saw you with Josie, it broke my heart. So, I decided to stay away… until Josie found me.”

Landon looks at Hope and sighs regretfully. “I’m sorry Josie and I happened.”

“And I’m sorry that I fell in love with her instead.” Hope apologizes too.

“We can’t control some things from happening I guess. And I think we said enough sorrys for the day.” Landon sighs with a forgiving smile.

“Yeah, you’re right. Enough of apologies. So….still friends?” Hope agrees as she opens her arms for a friendly hug.

Landon gives in to that long-awaited hug.

\------

“Lizzie, where’s Penelope?” Josie asks her sister when she reaches the library and finds Penelope missing.

“She probably went out to the school yard to sulk.” Lizzie reports. “Are things ok with Hope and you?”

“All good. I just need to talk to Pen.” Josie heads towards the exit.

“Wait, sweetheart!” Caroline calls for her daughter. “Did Hope tell you yet?”

Josie shakes her head. “No mom. But whatever the bad news is and I highly suspect it’s got something to do with me turning heretic, I can take the news.”

“Just know that we are working on a solution right now, ok? Don’t worry about it.” Caroline tells her oldest daughter.

Josie smiles and nods at her mother as she leaves the library. She finds Penelope sitting at the fountain at the school yard.

“Hey..” Josie greets the ex, slightly glad she was not crying or huffing in anger.

Penelope turns and greets back. “Hey..”

“I’m sorry about what I said earlier.” Josie apologizes as she sits next to Penelope. “I mean what I said but I guess I wasn’t very tactful about it. I was insensitive to your feelings.”

“I can tell..” Penelope notes. “I mean, I can tell you’re both very much in love with each other.”

“Pen… please tell me I’m really not the reason you came back here.”

“Jojo, you’re always the reason if I ever come back here.” Penelope admits. “But yeah, this time I wasn’t sure if it was you or Lizzie who will be in trouble. Still, I had to fly down to warn you. Did Hope break the news to you already?”

Josie shakes her head. “You know what, just tell me already. I can take it.”

“You sure? Your tribrid won’t attack me for telling you first?”

“She said you may tell me anyway.” Josie shrugs.

“It’s kinda annoying that she seems to know me and I know nothing about her.”

“Well, your memories of her were wiped.”

“Were we friends?”

“Ermm.. kinda..” Josie recalls. “Hope may be a witch as well but she didn’t like to have her own entourage or pack. That was her early years here in Salvatore. She stayed away from everyone.”

“And you always seem to have a soft spot for the loner kind. First Landon and now Hope?” Penelope highlights.

Josie realizes that Penelope may be right but it was actually first Hope and then Landon. Loner Hope was 15 when Josie first crushed on her. But the Hope now? She’s no longer a loner. She is a true selfless friend, a leader, a hero whom everyone loves and respects.

Penelope observes that Josie is lost in thoughts but it seems to be good thoughts as she’s smiling a little. She guesses it had to do with Hope again.

“Hey, maybe you should go celebrate… with her.” Penelope advises, crooking an understanding smile. “And let her make you the happiest person as she promised. The bad news can wait.”

Josie draws a thankful smile at the ex. “Thank you, Penelope.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna upload the finale chapter later today. Might as well end it all in a day ;)


	20. Always and Forever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posted the chapters 19 n 20 on the same day as a treat to those who love this story :)

Josie is surprised when she opens the door to Hope’s room. She sees Hope’s little spell table has transformed into a small dining table with a bottle of red wine, two glasses and an assortment of cheese and crackers.

“Great! You’re here.” Hope greets her with a welcoming smile. Her hands holding a corkscrew.

“So… we are really celebrating.” Josie notes. “Did you steal the wine?”

“Actually, your parents just gave it to me. Even taught me how to use the corkscrew.” Hope picks up the bottle of red and starts trying out the corkscrew.

“MY parents are letting us drink? A whole bottle?” Josie is surprised but wonders aloud. “Gosh, the bad news must be horrifying.”

Hope is still struggling with the corkscrew on the wine bottle, not really paying attention.

“I’m dying for real this time, isn’t it?” Josie guesses the bad news again.

“No..” Hope answers as she turns the corkscrew but the screw seems to have gone sideways. “Fuck..” the frustrated tribrid curses softly.

“So, what’s worse than death?” Josie wonders.

Noticing how her all-powerful tribrid girlfriend is still struggling to open a wine bottle, Josie decides to help the girlfriend. “Hope, leave the bottle to me.”

“Oh? You know how to do this?” Hope finally looks up from the bottle.

Josie murmurs a spell and the cork flies off the bottle.

“That’s cheating.” Hope huffs. “I was trying to be romantic here, you know.”

“I never knew opening a wine bottle with a corkscrew was a romantic thing.” Josie chuckles as she kisses her girlfriend’s cheek while Hope proceeds to pour the wine into the wine glasses.

“Your mom told me that this wine is specially made for vamps.” Hope reveals. “She says there’s a hint of blood in it.”

“Really?” Josie takes a glass and smells her wine. “Indeed, it does.”

“To my heroic, beautiful love. My amazing soulmate. For saving the world!” Hope lifts her glass to toast.

“To the love of my life! For saving the world too. And always saving me with her blood!” Josie makes her toast too.

“Congrats on not needing my blood anymore!” Hope acknowledges, knowing well that Josie is finally fully cleansed from the mud pain and has no need for her blood anymore. Heretics can also cure their own wolf bites.

The two girls clink glasses and take a sip of the wine. They love the taste immediately. They then chat and drink and eat without a worry in the world. In about an hour or so, they have finished the bottle.

“I’m drunk and I like it..” Josie giggles as she lies down on Hope’s bed.

“I’ll like to know what kind of drunk you are..” Hope crawls over to Josie and kisses the heretic’s neck.

“Happy drunk?” Josie guesses as she half closes her eyes, enjoying the trail of kisses on her neck.

“Glad you’re happy.” Hope lays a tender kiss on Josie’s lips.

In return, Josie cups Hope’s face and kisses her hungrily.

Hope lets out a soft satisfying whimper as she takes in the ravenous kiss. Perhaps Josie is more of a horny drunk. But as much as Hope is enjoying this, the worry she has been avoiding is still creeping in. She can’t help thinking when the coven is going to take her Josie away. Or if she can take Josie some place where they can’t find her. Or maybe she will just jump into the prison world with her. Just as long as they are together.

Josie breaks her kiss and looks at Hope curiously. “What prison world?”

Hope sighs. “You’re drunk! How are you still able to read my mind?”

Josie sits up. “I’m gonna be sent to prison, am I? That’s the bad news, isn’t it?”

Hope nods and reveals, “Apparently your dead coven still has the power to sentence their coven witches for breaking their rules. They made their request to a high council of witches and decided your punishment. Penelope overheard it and came down here to warn you but it was too late when you killed yourself and turned heretic.”

“I heard the prison world is just like this world except with no one else around. It isn’t so bad, right?” Josie tries to comfort herself. “How long did they sentence me?”

“Forever….and apparently your mad, evil uncle is there too.” Hope adds.

“Shit..” Josie buries her face in her hands, trying not think of anything negative.

“Jo, whatever happens, I’m not leaving you alone. I’ll go with you to that prison world if we really can’t find a way to stop this!” Hope promises. “I don’t fuckin care if your coven tries to stop me. I will find a way to you.”

“Hope…”

“Listen, we made a promise. Never to leave each other.” Hope cups Josie’s face.

“Hope, remember the relic thing we found in my dad’s office? Somehow, I think that is related to the prison world. Like an access to the world.” Josie adds. “It’s with me. Lizzie and I kept it safe under a cloaking spell in our room.”

“So, in case they managed to put you away, I can use it to find you?” Hope guesses.

“Yes, but I don’t know how you’re supposed to use it. You need to find my aunt Bonnie. Bonnie Bennett to tell you how. I think she knows.” Josie starts to remember bits of childhood memories of her mother’s best friend teaching them how to create that thing which she said will put bad people in a prison world.

“I will. I promise I will find you, Jo.” Hope assures.

“Kissy promise?”

“Kissy promise…” Hope promise-kisses Josie.

Just then, a knock on the door breaks their kiss.

“It’s me, Hope.” Freya announces through the door.

“Come in.” Hope invites her aunt in.

Freya opens the door and sees the two girls looking at her with their hands held together, as if mentally prepared for whatever news she is bringing them.

She smiles at them and then with a determined voice, informs them.

“Listen, girls. I’m going to the high council to speak with them. They will see me because I was once commissioned by them and they will respect my presence. I’m going to make an appeal to negotiate with them on Josie’s sentence. They cannot punish a girl with life imprisonment when what she did was to save everyone. She is not her murderous Uncle. Josie has sacrificed her life to take in a powerful demon and saved the world!!”

\-------

_“Five years is still better than forever, right?”_

_“If only I knew, I wouldn’t have let you be the one taking in Malivore and dying. I should have been the one.”_

_“Hope, you know everything was already prophesized and it won’t change a thing. I still do not regret doing it. Aunt Freya managed to appeal for me and got me not only a very short sentence but to even let me stay in our world for the next six years until Lizzie is officially the Gemini coven leader at 22. At least I have six precious years of freedom to spend our time together and with our families before I go to serve that five-year sentence in the prison world, right?”_

_“It still isn’t fair..”_

_“I have come to accept that I am already very lucky. Perhaps if I was killed accidentally or by someone else, my sentence may have been lighter than this or I could even have been let off, but it is obvious it was by my own hand and choice. Don’t worry, when I am in prison, five years will pass by quickly.”_

_“You know I’m going with you in there no matter what.”_

_“Perhaps you might change your mind in six years’ time.”_

_“No, I won’t. You’re my always and forever.”_

_“And that is why I will go to prison with no regret. My always and forever will always be there for me.”_

\-------

Epilogue

12 YEARS LATER

Relaxing on the sun-lounger in her loose sundress, Hope basks in the warm sun as she gently caresses her swollen belly. A belly carrying a fourth generation Mikaelson first-born witch, a tribrid like her. The poolside is so quiet and peaceful, unlike the noisy crowd in the house at the moment. But the quiet moment is soon ruined by the familiar voice of her sister-in-law.

“How dare you sneaked out here without me?!” Lizzie scolds Hope.

Hope lifts up her sunglasses to frown at her also very pregnant sister-in-law. Lizzie walks closer to Hope, holding her back more than Hope does these days.

“Gosh, Lizzie. You looked like you’re gonna fall over anytime.” Hope stretches out her hand to help Lizzie but the blonde slaps the tribrid’s hand away and sits down on the sun-lounger next to her.

“Shut up, Mikaelson. I’m carrying twins. And it isn’t fair you’re carrying your child in your 18-year-old body while I’m carrying mine in my 28-year old body.” Lizzie rejects the help and relaxes comfortably on the lounger. “Sigh.. Now I know why you prefer being away from the party in the house. I feel so light lying here.”

“28 isn’t old, Lizzie.” Hope puts her sunglasses back on.

“They’re making bets on who will pop first again.” Lizzie reveals. “I had to get out of there.”

“And who’s leading?” Hope asks.

“I am.” Lizzie then rolls her eyes. “I can’t believe they would think the bigger the tummy, the sooner it pops. I’m not a balloon. I just have twins!”

“We’re both on our eighth month. Anyone of us could pop first.”

“I know right!”

The two mothers-to-be enjoy a little bit of silence between them for some time, relaxing and taking in the spontaneous sunbathing as peacefully as possible.

“Oh.. look who just arrived.” Lizzie looks over to the front of the house to see Amber arriving with gifts and where Josie cheerfully welcomes the hybrid to the baby shower party.

Amber catches the eye of Hope at the poolside and waves at her but Hope waves back in a direction to tell the hybrid to go in the house and not come to her yet. Amber seems to catch what her Alpha was hinting at and nods with a friendly thumbs-up, following Josie into the house.

“Will she freak out if she finds out her boyfriend is the one who impregnated you?” Lizzie wonders aloud.

“Lizzie! How many times must I remind you it isn’t Raf from this world!” Hope exclaims.

“I know I know.” Lizzie adds. “The Raf from this world can’t procreate since he’s a hybrid and that Raf in that alternate world was just a werewolf. But honestly, I still don’t know how the science work. You’re a full tribrid and yet you could procreate. And it isn’t like you were sent to the alternate world where vamps can procreate.”

“Well, I guess my family tend to carry some kind of cosmic loophole gene. My dad was a hybrid who managed to procreate. I guess I carried down that gene, without knowing it actually still works?”

“I still can’t believe you slept with Raf. It’s like Raf is one-night stand material in any world!” Lizzie chortles.

“And I still can’t believe you married Landon and are having a pair of undying twin witches.” Hope counters.

“Well, I can’t help it when both you and Josie left me alone with him all these years!? At least the coven is delighted that their current leader is going to have a pair of twins who can’t actually die in a merge. They know they can’t throw my little boy and girl in prison for being naturally undying. Nature doesn’t break any rule.” Lizzie states proudly.

“No offense, coven leader. But I still hate your coven. Just because of one prison break attempt I did, they threw me into an alternate world where there is no existence of the Saltzman twins. It sucked that I could never find a Josie Saltzman in that world. Your coven really did me dirty there. I was one hell of a miserable soul! I kept missing your sister that on one pissed drunk ass night, had sex with werewolf Raf and boom! Pregnant!” Hope recalls.

“Well, look at it on the bright side, if you didn’t get thrown in that Josie-less world, you wouldn’t have had that one-night stand with hot Raf, you wouldn’t know you could procreate and have this little miracle baby. And you were only able to get back into this world because of your baby. This world where Josie was already out of prison, Hope.”

“Yeah, the high council got me back so now they own my ass and then they will take my tribrid child as a sacrifice, just like what some witches tried to do to me when I was born.”

“Gosh, Hope. Must I say this again?! The high council got you back to protect you and the baby. You’re my family. They promised to protect MY family and they will not kill my niece! I will fight them if they as much as touch a hair of my niece!” 

“Lizzie, I trust you but I just don’t trust other witches, especially your gemini coven ancestors.”

“Well, if you had not tried to break my sister out of prison world in the first place, they would have trusted you more…” Lizzie reminds.

“Your crazy uncle was the reason we had to break out of the prison world. If you were in there with Josie and I, you would understand.”

“You and Josie tolerated him for two years, you could have patiently waited another three years for Josie to finish serving her sentence. In the end, you got your ass thrown into another world, leaving my sister with the psycho uncle alone. You’re lucky Josie knew how to handle him and completed her sentence safe and sound.”

“Sigh.. I know… And I’m lucky she still married me despite everything that had happened. Now she’s even more excited to raise our baby than I am.” Hope admits, internally thankful of what she has with Josie now.

“Hope dearie, no long-lasting relationship is always so smooth-sailing.” Lizzie adds. “You and my sister went through all these crazy events only to find your way back to each other every time. It only goes to show how strong your love for each other is.”

“Aww…That’s sweet, Mrs Kirby.” Hope smiles thoughtfully at her lovely sister-in-law.

“Don’t go mushy on me, Mikaelson.” Lizzie chuckles.

“How long do you two plan on staying out here?”

Hope and Lizzie turn to see their favourite person walking up to them.

“You’re both the main hosts! The ones they are supposed to be showering their gifts at!” Josie reminds the two mothers-to-be.

“It’s too noisy in there, wifey. Bad for our daughter.” Hope complains with a pout.

“Did she kick angrily again?” Josie reaches down to touch the precious belly, not forgetting to plant a loving kiss on her wife’s pouty lips.

“Nah, she’s calm now.” Hope reports to the wife.

“Alright, you both know I alone can’t handle so many guests.” Josie highlights to her wife and sister.

“The baby shower party was your idea, Sis. You deal with it.” Lizzie retorts.

“Oh, this is coming from the person who supported my idea eagerly because she LOVES PARTIES.” Josie rebukes too.

“Well, you could have invited less people.” Hope mutters.

“I invited more because there are three babies here!” Josie raises her hands in exasperation.

“Fine.. fine. I’ll go back in.” Hope soothes Josie, reaching for her hand as she sits up and encourages her sister-in-law along. “C’mon, Lizzie.”

“Wait.. did you dip in the pool earlier?” Josie asks her wife as she helps her up.

“No..” Hope shakes her head.

“Then why is there a big wet patch on your lounger?” Josie observes.

“Holy shit…” Lizzie looks at the patch and then at her sister-in-law. “Your water broke, Hope!”

Josie gasps deeply. “Okok…Let’s not panic! I…I will go grab the bag. Lizzie! Bring my wife to the car now!”

Lizzie nods and quickly grabs hold of Hope, walking carefully with her sister-in-law towards the car.

“Lizzie, if you let go of me, I can actually vamp-speed to my car, water-broken or not.” Hope tells the blonde.

“Right, blame the heavier pregnant lady for walking too slowly.” Lizzie rolls her eyes but she eventually lets go of Hope when she sees that Josie had vamp-sped from the house to take the bag and is now already at the car.

Pregnant Hope vamp-sprints to her car and takes the back seat while her wife starts the car.

“Bye! We’ll catch up later!” Lizzie waves at her girls as they drive off. The baby shower guests standing behind her also waving at Josie and Hope driving away.

“So, how much did most of you lose?” Lizzie smirks, asking the guests who have lost the bet.    

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I basically kinda summarize 12 years in one epilogue but I hope it's the endgame story worth telling.  
> Adios! I don't know if i will be writing any new stories for now. I think I am more of a reader than a writer these days.


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